Queen Elizabeth celebrating 90th birthday at Windsor Castle

WINDSOR, England -- Fate unexpectedly made her queen. Duty and endurance have made her an institution and an icon.

Queen Elizabeth II turned 90 on Thursday as Britain's oldest and longest-reigning monarch, drawing crowds of well-wishers and floods of tributes to the stamina and service of a woman who can claim to have given her name to the age.

Britain is living, Prime Minister David Cameron said, in the "modern Elizabethan Era."


IN PICTURES


Happy 90! Queen Elizabeth through the years



Photos



Queen Elizabeth II meets well-wishers during a walkabout to celebrate her 90th birthday in Windsor, England, Thursday April 21, 2016. (AP / Alastair Grant)



Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip ride in an open-topped Range Rover close to Windsor Castle, as she celebrates her 90th birthday, in Berkshire, England, Thursday, April 21, 2016. (John Stillwell / Pool Photo via AP)

The queen usually spends her birthday privately, with most of the pomp and ceremony reserved for an official birthday that's marked in June. But Thursday's milestone brought an outpouring of public goodwill.

Thousands of fans greeted the queen on a tightly choreographed walkabout near her Windsor Castle home, while elsewhere her government and subjects held gun salutes, fireworks and speeches in Parliament, and televised retrospectives offered scenes from a royal life that has stretched from the Roaring '20s to the Internet age.

"Her Majesty has been steadfast -- a rock of strength for our nation, for our Commonwealth and on many occasions for the whole world," Cameron said as he led tributes in the House of Commons.

He praised the monarch's "unshakable sense of duty," pointing out that she had provided counsel to 12 British prime ministers and met a quarter of all the U.S. presidents since Independence.

Her record is all the more remarkable because she was not born to be queen. When Princess Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, her father was a younger son of king and not expected to reign. His older brother took the throne in 1936 as Edward VIII -- but abdicated the same year to marry his divorced American lover, Wallis Simpson.

Elizabeth's father became King George VI and, at 10, she became heir to the throne. When she was 21 -- almost five years before she became queen -- she promised the people of Britain and the Commonwealth that "my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service."

She kept the promise, and it has struck a chord with people in Britain and around the world.

"She's such an icon and a real role model for the children of today. And I think everybody should respect her for all the years that she's given for her country," said Donna Werner, an American tourist from New Fairfield, Connecticut, who came to greet the queen in Windsor, just west of London.

Thousands lined the streets of the town carrying cakes, cards, balloons and Union Jack flags. The band of the Coldstream Guards played "Happy Birthday" and royal fans snapped cellphone photos as the queen, clad in pale green, greeted local dignitaries, townspeople and tourists.

By her side was 94-year-old Prince Philip, her husband of 69 years, with whom she has four children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren

Elsewhere, artillery companies fired gun salutes from sites including Hyde Park and the Tower of London, the bells of Westminster Abbey rang out in celebration and the Parliament building was being lit in the red, white and blue of the Union Jack.

There was even a tea party aboard Royal Navy flagship HMS Ocean, whose crew stood in formation to spell out "EIIR 90" -- Elizabeth II Regina, her official monogram -- on the flight deck.

In the evening, the queen was lighting the first in a chain of 1,000 commemorative beacons to blaze across Britain and around the world, before attending a private family party at the castle.

The BBC is showing a documentary that includes rare home-movie footage of the queen as a child in the 1930s and a young mother in the 1950s. In the documentary, Prince Charles watches a clip of the moment a man fired blanks while the queen was riding by in 1981, startling her horse. The prince notes that his mother is "made of strong stuff."

The 67-year-old heir to the throne also recorded a tribute to his mother for broadcast on the BBC World Service. He recited a passage from William Shakespeare's "Henry VIII" about the birth of the monarch's predecessor, Queen Elizabeth I:

"She shall be, to the happiness of England,

An aged princess; many days shall see her,

And yet no day without a deed to crown it."

The passage was apt. The first Elizabeth reigned for decades and brought stability to a fractured nation. Elizabeth II has also become a reassuring presence at home and an emblem of Britain abroad-- it's no surprise she appeared at the opening of the 2012 London Olympics alongside another icon, James Bond.

She has weathered tough years when the divorces of three of her children tarnished the monarchy. And she came back from the death of Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash, when the royal family was criticized as being out of touch with the public's grief.

Her popular grandchildren have helped bolster the family fortunes. Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011 was a 21st-century mashup of traditional monarchy and modern celebrity that brought widespread popular celebration. Their two children -- Prince George, who is almost 3, and 11-month-old Princess Charlotte -- are likely the world's most famous toddlers.

The world's media loves bachelor ex-soldier Prince Harry, who, like his brother, has thrown his weight behind numerous charities.

The queen will receive more birthday greetings on Friday, when she hosts U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama for lunch at Windsor Castle.

And there is more (much more) to come.

For four nights next month there will be a musical pageant in Windsor, involving 900 horses and some 1,500 actors, dancers and musicians, celebrating the queen's nine decades.

On June 11 comes the monarch's "official" birthday, traditionally marked by the Trooping the Color military parade. This year there will also be a service at St. Paul's Cathedral and a huge street party in the Mall outside Buckingham Palace for members of charities the queen supports. The government has even given pubs permission to stay open later on June 10 and 11, until 1 a.m. instead of the standard 11 p.m.

Not everyone in Britain has succumbed to royal-mania. The anti-monarchist group Republic published a resolutely undeferential message headed "Happy Birthday Mrs. Windsor."

"A long life is no reason for a long reign," it said.

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Trump and Clinton win New York primaries

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, front-runners in the race to be the US presidential candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties, have secured comfortable victories in the crucial New York primary election.

Mrs Clinton, after beating Bernie Sanders, said her victory for the Democratic nomination was in sight.

Mr Trump looked set to take nearly all the 95 Republican delegates at stake.

He said his nearest rival Ted Cruz was “just about mathematically eliminated”.

With more than 98% of the results in, Mr Trump is leading with just over 60% of the vote while Mrs Clinton has just under 58%.

US networks projected that Mr Trump had won in his home state barely seconds after the polls closed at 21:00 EDT (01:00 GMT).

Speaking at Trump Tower in Manhattan, he said: “I have to say to the people that know me the best – the people of New York – when they give us this kind of a vote it’s just incredible.”

He said he was going to get more delegates than “anyone projected even in their wildest imaginations”.

Third-placed John Kasich picked up three delegates in New York.

Donald Trump needed a commanding victory, and he got it. Although the results in the state’s 29 congressional districts – which allocate three convention delegates apiece – have yet to be finalised, it appears likely that Mr Trump will claim the lion’s share of the 95 delegates at play.

Perhaps even more importantly, however, is the new, restrained Donald Trump on the campaign trail in the past few days. Gone are the incendiary tweets bashing his opponents (and their spouses). Instead on Tuesday night the candidate gave a short speech hammering home his economic message, emphasising his delegate and vote lead, and laying the groundwork to argue that he should be the party’s nominee even if he doesn’t win the 1,237 delegates necessary to claim the nomination outright.

Mr Trump recently brought in several experienced political hands to manage his campaign after a turbulent few weeks. If this new demeanour is part of the change they have inspired, Mr Trump could prove to be a more formidable opponent not just at the ballot box in upcoming primaries but in the contest to win over those in the party still deeply suspicious of his candidacy.

“Tomorrow, we go back to work,” Mr Trump said during his victory speech. It was a very un-Trump-like line – and something that should have his opponents very concerned.

Mrs Clinton told supporters her campaign for the nomination was “in the home stretch and victory is in sight”.

“New Yorkers, you’ve always had my back and I’ve always tried to have yours,” she said. “Today together we did it again and I am deeply, deeply grateful.”

It had been a fierce campaign in the state, with Mrs Clinton – a former New York senator – and Mr Sanders – born in Brooklyn – using their local ties to attract voters.

The Democratic campaign has turned increasingly negative, with Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders trading barbs about their qualifications.

But following the latest result in the race for the Democratic nomination, Mrs Clinton said there was “much more that unites us than divides us”.

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UNAIDS Special Representatives Mette-Marit speaks about hope amidst Aids scourge (Audio)

In order to ensure people living with AIDS are not stigmatized by those around them, the society has been urged to change its attitudes and be helpful to them.

UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway speaking to the press in Dar es salaam yesterday said having Aids does not mean the end of the world.

She said she was so much impressed with the way PASADA is doing its functions to create hope among of the people who are infected; with assurance of productive life equipping them with necessities and education.

She said it is very moving to see young people with infection having hoped to live with.

Mette-Marrit said that people living with HIV/ AIDS need love and protection like other people and the fight against the disease is not a matter of individuals.

She said there is a huge progress in fighting the diseases and its stigma than years back when she and her husband started a foundation to deal with epidemic.

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Sudan's Bashir to step down in 2020

AFP

Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said that he will step down in 2020 after his current term in office ends.

"In 2020, there will be a new president and I will be an ex-president," Bashir said in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday.

Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, seized power in a 1989 coup.

The 72-year-old career soldier won a new term last April in elections marred by international criticism, poor turnout and an opposition boycott.

Bashir had previously said he would not run in the 2015 elections.

He told the BBC his job was "exhausting" and that he would not stand in elections slated for 2020.

Bashir was indicted by the ICC over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide charges related to the Darfur conflict.

Ethnic minority insurgents rebelled against him in 2003 saying the western region was being marginalised and Bashir unleased a campaign to crush them using troops, militia and jet planes.

The United Nations says some 300 000 people have been killed in the conflict and there are more than 2.5 million displaced people in the region, but Khartoum gives much lower figures.

Fierce fighting in Darfur's Jebel Marra area since January has forced at least 100 000 people to flee their homes, according to the UN.

In his BBC interview, Bashir denied reports his forces had carried out abuses in Jebel Marra.

Source:  news24.com

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Tanzanian soldiers in DRC captured over sex misuse

The UN mission in the DRC declared that it had gotten assertions of sexual misuse and manhandle by individuals from the Tanzanian unexpected connected to the MONUSCO Force Intervention Brigade in Mavivi town in the eastern piece of DRC.

As per preparatory data, there are 11 such assertions against the Tanzanian troopers in the territory, every one of them including paternity claims.

The embroiled warriors have been kept anticipating the further UN examination while the entire Tanzanian troop has additionally been bound to the detachment's base station. Then, a top UN official on sexual misuse is relied upon to touch base in the district soon.

Tanzania's Minister for Defense and National Service, Hussein Mwinyi, told The Guardian that the home government was additionally investigating the affirmations that a percentage of the Tanzanian peacekeepers in the DRC had occupied with assault.

The UN has been in the spotlight for a considerable length of time over such assertions of sexual misuse including its blue head protectors from different nations. There are presently more than 100 such cases, essentially embroiling troops in the Central Africa Republic.

Both areas have been left defenseless following quite a while of contention and troops sent to keep the neighborhood groups safe are supposedly mishandling the obligation depended them.

The Tanzanian troops, who are a piece of the DRC peacekeeping unit close by fighters from South Africa and Malawi, are so far the main ones to be ensnared in such sexual misuse claims in that nation.

Asked whether the paternity claims against them were only the tip of an ice shelf like the spiraling charges in the CAR, Stephane Dujarric, a representative for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said:

"You're requesting that I anticipate something I can't foresee. I don't know whether it's the start of something else, what we do know is that for these particular affirmations (in DRC), the main unforeseen being taken a gander at is the Tanzanian unexpected."

"Clearly whether it's the CAR or the DRC, we would ask the individuals who have data to approach and we need to ensure that those individuals from the groups feel sufficiently safe to approach."

"The Secretary General's extraordinary facilitator for enhancing the UN's reaction to sexual misuse and manhandle, Jane Holl Lute, will go to the CAR and the DRC in the following few days. This is her first field visit to peacekeeping operations since she took up her post on March 1", Dujarric included.

It is still misty when the charged assaults occurred in the DRC and the UN is attempting to confirm the periods of the youngsters destined to the asserted casualties.

The troop-contributing nations, for example, Tanzania in this occasion, would be in charge of researching and arraigning asserted culprits, coming up short which the UN would venture in.

The UN's Office of Internal Oversight and concerned troop-contributing nations are relied upon to dispatch joint examinations concerning the sexual misuse claims in the Central African Republic in the blink of an eye.

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YouTube Now Partially Supports Multitasking on iPad

 

iPad: iOS 9 introduced multitasking to the iPad way back in September of 2015 and today Google finally updated the YouTube app to support these new multitasking modes.

YouTube now supports Slide Over and Split View modes for watching videos in the app, but for some reason, Picture-in-Picture isn't supported at all. As always, Split View is compatible with the iPad Air 2, the iPad Pro, and the iPad Mini 4. Slide Over's compatible with the iPad Air and newer, the iPad Mini and newer, and the iPad Pro.

 

Source: Life hacker

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American ISIS Fighter Captured In Iraq

A Virginia man who surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Iraq on Monday is believed to be the the first U.S. citizen captured on the battlefield after joining ISIS. But it’s not clear that U.S. authorities will seek to extradite him, or that the Iraqi government would be willing to turn him over.

The man, who was identified in news accounts as Mohamad Jamal Khweis, reportedly gave himself up near the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar. He had traveled through Turkey to Syria some months ago. A driver’s license that circulated on social media and was apparently taken from him by the Kurds gave his residence as Alexandria, Va.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday that officials were aware of news reports that Khweis had surrendered. It wasn’t clear who was holding him as of Monday evening. And multiple U.S. officials told The Daily Beast that it was too soon to say if the U.S. would seek to put Khweis in American custody and prosecute him for supporting ISIS.

But it’s ultimately up to Iraq how to deal with the man.

“If the U.S. wanted to criminally prosecute him, we’d have every right to ask Iraq or the Kurds to extradite him. But it’d be their sovereign right to decide,” David Glazier, a professor of Law at Loyola Law School, told The Daily Beast.

Iraq is at war with ISIS, a non-state group that seeks to take Iraqi territory, but U.S. military is acting in a supporting role, Glazier said. That means ball is in Baghdad’s court. “If the U.S. doesn’t do something specific, then he would just stay there.”

Little is known yet about Khweis and why he left his home in suburban Virginia to fight with the terrorist group. His mother and father told Voice of America that they hadn’t seen their son in some time, and that they thought he’d traveled to Canada. They said they had no idea that he’d joined ISIS.

Phone calls to the Khweis home weren’t returned Monday afternoon.

Public records show that Khweis, 26, has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement. He was cited in Virginia for driving a car with tinted windows, speeding, and driving without a safety belt. More seriously, he was arrested in 2010 for driving while intoxicated and refusing to take a blood or breath test. A year earlier, Khweis was arrested for appearing drunk in public.

In a video taken by the Peshmerga fighters, Khweis appeared nervous when he identified himself as coming from the United States. He spoke English and asked that cameras be turned off.

Why Khweis left ISIS’s ranks is also still a mystery. But his apparent defection comes on the heels of what officials say is a notable increase in the number of foreign fighters breaking with the terror group and trying to return to their home countries.

“Fighters are becoming...certainly disenchanted with the effort that they signed up for,” said Kirby, the State Department spokesman. Reports from inside Iraq and Syria suggested that more are defecting, and ISIS has been making more use of child soldiers, Kirby said—a sign that the group may not be able to attract or keep as many adult fighters as in the past.

“There does appear, at least anecdotally, to be some cracks here in the foundation of their manpower and their resources,” Kirby said.

If Khweis is questioned by U.S. authorities, he might be able to provide information about why people are leaving ISIS’s ranks. Interrogation of ISIS members has also become central to the U.S. military’s strategy of defeating the group.

Last week, U.S. forces conducted airstrikes targeting ISIS’s chemical weapons program after obtaining information from a captured operative, Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, who once worked for Saddam Hussein’s Military Industrialization Authority.

And last year, U.S. commandos captured the wife of a top ISIS operative who oversaw the group’s oil trade. The woman, known as Umm Sayyaf, provided information on the group’s assaults on women and use of sexual slaves.

Both al-Bakkar and Umm Sayyaf were held for weeks in U.S. custody but eventually turned over. In Umm Sayyaf’s case, officials are now concerned that she hasn’t faced charges in an Iraqi court. In February, the Justice Department issued a criminal complaint against her as “an insurance policy,” a U.S. official said at the time, in case she escapes custody or is transferred out of Iraq.

That highlights some of the uncertainty over how to handle captured ISIS fighters and operatives. If the U.S. cannot easily prosecute all of them, it will depend upon the government of Iraq to do so. But if the government is unwilling, then the fighters might not face swift justice.

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Tanzania: Special Leadership Meeting Opens

Several business experts and spiritual leaders are in Dar es Salaam for three-day financial summit expected to be officially opened today.

The forum organised by Kingdom Leadership Network Tanzania (KNLT) in partnership with Bill Winston Ministries International and the Committee of Union of Churches is being held at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar Es Salaam.

The Summit themed "Unlocking Kingdom Finances" targets leaders, policy makers, public and private sector leaders in the areas of business, government, politics, religion, according to a statement issued by organisers.

"The summit presents a unique and timely opportunity for the leaders of different sectors to gain insights and discuss issues that confront financial and economic progress.

"Tanzanian businesses and the nation at large, with a view to arriving at actionable resolutions in accordance with the purpose and plan of God for Tanzania. "The summit will culminate in the launch and inauguration of Tanzania's 1st ever National prayer breakfast on the 3rd of March (Thursday) at the Hyatt Regency hotel."

"Tanzania is entering a new season of leadership and economic vibrancy and Kingdom Leadership Network Tanzania is driven by the hunger to see visionary leadership permeating at all levels of business and governance with principles of Kingdom finances shared and unlocked for Tanzanians."

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Indian man kills 14 family members with knife

Mumbai - A 35-year-old man killed 14 members of his family including six children with a butcher's knife before committing suicide in India, with police baffled Sunday about a motive for the attack.
The grisly murders occurred after Hasnin Anwar Warekar and his extended family gathered late on Saturday at a home north of India's financial capital of Mumbai for a family function, police officers said.
"The attacker, Hasnin Anwar Warekar, hung himself after slitting the throats of all other family members including his parents," Gajanan Laxman Kabdule, a police spokesman in Thane, some 32 kilometres from Mumbai, said.
The sole survivor of the attack - Warekar's sister - was taken to hospital after neighbours heard her screaming for help after midnight and alerted police.
Neighbours were forced to open a window to rescue the woman after the assailant allegedly locked all escape routes from the house before carrying out the attacks, according to local media reports.
"We still haven't been able to speak with the attacker's 21-year-old sister, the lone survivor of the attack, who is in deep trauma at a city hospital," Kabdule told AFP.
Warekar, who reportedly worked for a private firm in Mumbai, was able to carry out the attacks after lacing the food at the gathering with a sedative, according to several local media reports.
But the Indian Express newspaper said he stabbed his victims after they went to bed, having all decided to spend the night at the house in Thane.
"Prima facie evidence suggests that the accused bolted all the doors of the house and murdered his family while they were asleep with a knife that we found near his body," Ashutosh Dumbre, joint commissioner of Thane police, was quoted saying.
Kabdule said he could not confirm whether the victims had been sedated, saying investigators were awaiting medical test results.
Footage showed men carrying bodies wrapped in sheets from the house to a waiting ambulance, as crowds and police gathered outside the white-walled home.
Kabdule said details of the attack "are still sketchy" along with the motive.
According to the Press Trust of India news agency, a property dispute was behind the killings, but Dumbre said initial investigations have so far found no trigger for such an "extreme step".
"In our inquiry so far, no one has yet been able to give the reason for this," Dumbre told the ABP news channel.
"He worked with a private company in Mumbai. There were no known financial troubles or disputes and now we are hoping that the lone survivor can tell us something about the trigger," he said. Published in The Nation newspaper on 29-Feb-2016

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Microsoft Corporation And The Curious Case Of Hardware

Microsoft has been one of the biggest names in the markets of software technology. The company has been coming out with some of their apex releases in the world of software technology, especially when we take a closer look at the bigger scheme of things, Microsoft has done a splendid job with the world of operating systems. Microsoft’s Windows 10 OS has been a major renovation in the way things work, and the company has been coming out with update after update which has helped their software and OS division grow. Microsoft Corporation has however, faced a really hard time in the hardware business.

 

Every time Microsoft has tried to break through the hardware markets, they are met with a major opposition  from their critics as well as their competitors. Here’s a look at everything that’s gone wrong with the company –

XBOX One – The Microsoft XBOX One could have been the apex gaming console in the markets, but is today outnumbered 40 million to 19 million by the PS4. The biggest problem that the XBOX division faced was the fact that the company never really got the start they wanted as they were limited to a few countries. They are still recovering from that.

Mobile Phones – The Windows Mobile idea never really caught on, and the company has been throwing money down the drain over this, hoping that some day the investments would pay off, but there is an absolute lack of demand and Microsoft must end the business before it has them bleed out more than it already has.

Surface Pro and Surface Book – Microsoft, after a few years of the release of this device, suddenly realized that they had struck gold with the Surface series. However, the company has been doing quite well in the recent times with the surface division, but the devices need more visibility and Microsoft Corporation must focus at spending media on the same.

source: http://www.thenewsindependent.com

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CHINESE NEW YEAR IS COMING: Myths & legends.

There’s no doubting that the stories at the core of Chinese New Year have had an enormous effect on the civilisation. The 12-year cycle zodiac is a more than 4,700-year-old method of marking time, and while some of the stories are meant for children others show a sense of creative wordplay and compassion for others so as to give important life lessons.

What’s it all about?

The Chinese New Year story is about saying goodbye to the year and marking time. It was integral to farming and planning annual events. There are a couple of stories that are more common depending on where in the Sinosphere you look.

One story of CNY is about the start of time, and gives a narrative to why cats hate rats. According to legend, the Jade Emperor decided to segment time into cycles of 12 years, so he devised a race among the animals. In the race, the animals had to cross a river to the finish, so the rat and the cat asked the strong ox to give them a ride across the fast water. But the cunning rat betrayed the cat, pushing her into the water and riding the ox to the other side, only to jump off and race to the finish line for first place. The ox followed and the rest is, sort of, history.

This coming cycle we will switch from the ram/goat/sheep to the ninth zodiac year of the monkey. In that time the year takes on the characteristics of the monkey, according to the mythology. So expect tricks and turns from the cunning animal spirit.

WATCH: The Chinese zodiac story

But there’s another story, not widely told in Hong Kong but illuminating to the traditions of the holiday, especially fireworks, the colour red and lion dances.

There was a beast named Nian who would hide for a year and raid villages at the time of the lunar new year. Nian, a lion-headed bull often represented by lion dancers, has an Achilles heel – he’s afraid of loud noises, fire and the colour red. Strings of firecrackers popping off in the street were meant to ward off Nian’s return each year. Not incidentally, nian means both year and grain and the story incorporates giving charity to those less fortunate, and sending off the old year with a bang.

source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com

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Zimbabwe declares 'state of disaster'

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Friday declared a "state of disaster" in many rural areas hit by a severe drought, with 26 percent of the population facing food shortages.

A regional drought worsened by the El Nino weather phenomenon has affected South Africa and Zambia as well as Zimbabwe, leaving tens of thousands of cattle dead, dams depleted and crops written off.

A recent development

Formerly known as the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe has suffered perennial shortages in recent years and has resorted to importing grain from neighbouring countries to meet its needs.

"Initial indications were that 1.5 million people were food insecure with all the 60 rural districts being affected," public works minister Saviour Kasukuwere said in a statement.

"Overall, the food insecure population has since risen to 2.44 million - 26 percent of the population.

"(With) the continued threat of the El Nino-induced drought, His Excellency the President has declared a state of disaster in regard to severely affected areas."

Mugabe has blamed low farm yields on erratic rains due to climate change, as well as sanctions imposed by Western countries over the government's tainted human rights record.

Critics say the food shortages have been partially caused by the president's land reforms enacted since 2000 when the government oversaw the often violent eviction of white farmers.

Many farms are underutilised, and the government has vowed to hold an audit to ensure agriculture land is put to use.

Kasukuwere said at least 16,500 cattle have died countrywide, while as much as 75 percent of crops have been abandoned in the worse-hit areas.

He said the government would take measures to minimise the impact of the drought on both humans and livestock.AFP

Government's version

Mugabe has blamed low farm yields on erratic rains due to climate change, as well as sanctions imposed by Western countries over the government's tainted human rights record.

What critics say?

Critics say the food shortages have been partially caused by the president's land reforms enacted since 2000 when the government oversaw the often violent eviction of white farmers.

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Women Don't Make First Move When It Comes To Online Dating

All men please take note! In the online dating world, women do not like to send personal messages to initiate contact and later mating and would rather send "weak signals" than making the first move, a team of Indian-origin researchers has revealed.

According to Jui Ramaprasad, assistant professor of information systems at McGill University, they still see that women don't make the "first move" online.

"Weak signalling is the ability to visit or 'check out' a potential mate's profile so the potential mate knows the focal-user visited," she noted.

The offline 'flirting' equivalents, at best, would be a suggestive look or a preening bodily gesture such as a hair toss to one side or an over-the-shoulder glance -- each subject to myriad interpretations and possible misinterpretations.

Much less ambiguity exists in the online environment if the focal-user views another user's profile and leaves a visible train in his 'Recent Visitors' list.

The researchers also found that users with anonymous browsing viewed more profiles. They were also more likely to check out potential same-sex and interracial matches.

Surprisingly, however, users who browsed anonymously also wound up with fewer matches than their non-anonymous counterparts.

This was especially true for female users: those with anonymous browsing wound up with an average of 14 percent fewer matches.

Men often take the cue. "Men send four times the number of messages that women do," said co-author Akhmed Umyarov, assistant professor at University of Minnesota, adding that the anonymity feature doesn't change things so much for men.

The team examined the impact of anonymous browsing via a premium online browsing service where 50,000 users were given free access to the feature for a month, enabling them to view profiles of other users without leaving telltale digital traces.

"Even though people are willing to pay to become anonymous in online dating sites, we find that the feature is detrimental to the average users," noted professor Ravi Bapna, co-author and the Carlson Chair in business analytics and information systems at Minnesota.

The study, published in the journal Management Science, could lay the groundwork for further academic analysis of online dating sites.

Experiments of this sort could be used in a range of online-matching platforms to help understand how to improve the consumer experience -- though it's important that the experiments be done ethically, the researchers added.

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Facebook Launches Initiative To Combat Zika Virus

 
At a time when the world is bracing itself against the growing Zika virus, social networking giant Facebook has partnered with Brazil's non-profit Abrasco Divulga to help combat the disease that has spread to more than 20 countries.

In a Facebook post, its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that as a community, "we can help fight the Zika virus by raising awareness".

"The Zika virus is one of the biggest public health challenges right now. For pregnant women who get the virus, it has been linked to brain damage for their babies," the 31-year-old billionaire posted.

"The virus is carried by mosquitoes. There are no medicines to treat or prevent the virus yet, so right now the most important thing is to try to avoid mosquito bites," he added.

Zuckerberg also posted a video link http://www.who.int/csr/disease/zika/ from their campaign that, he hopes, will provide valuable information to expectant mothers.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared an international emergency over the Zika virus.

The mosquito-transmitted Zika virus outbreak in some countries of the Americas, notably Brazil, has been linked to cases of microcephaly, which causes underdeveloped brains in babies.

The casual relation between the Zika infection during pregnancy and microcephaly is strongly suspected.

Over 1.5 million Brazilians are estimated to have been infected by the virus over the past few months.

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Obama borrows from Bush in first visit to U.S. mosque

President Obama tours the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Photo: Gerald Herbert/AP)

President Obama took office in January 2009 eager to speak to Muslims around the world on behalf of Americans, looking to reset a relationship poisoned by the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Seven years later, Obama makes his first visit to a U.S. mosque on Wednesday, eager to speak to America on behalf of its Muslim citizens, looking to counter what the White House describes as poisonous election-year rhetoric from Republicans.


“We have seen an alarming willingness on the part of some Republicans to try to marginalize law-abiding, patriotic Muslim Americans, and it is offensive,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday. “We have seen a willingness on the part of leading Republican presidential candidates to try to appeal to people’s fears and anxieties.”

White House aides say Obama won’t call out any Republicans by name during his visit to the Islamic Center of Baltimore mosque. But they privately say that the spark for the president’s visit was Trump’s call to halt Muslim immigration to the United States, a proposal that drew condemnation from some — but not all — of the bombastic billionaire’s rivals to be the Republican standard-bearer in 2016, and won considerable support in Congress. Obama’s advisers also bristle at charges from some in the GOP that Islam is inherently prone to violence. And administration officials worry that coverage overseas of Trump’s remarks could fuel what one called a “false impression that we are at war with Islam.” Republicans have often countered that Obama’s refusal to brand the enemy “Islamic extremists” is a nod to politically correct sensibilities that shows he does not take the threat seriously.

Public opinion polls in late 2015 found that a majority of Republican voters backed Trump’s idea. Democrats overwhelmingly rejected it, and most independents sided with them.

Among the key audiences for Obama’s remarks is America’s Muslim community, which he needs to have as an ally against home-grown extremists, like those who carried out the deadly attack in San Bernardino, Calif., in December.

“We will have more success in our efforts to prevent that if we work effectively with the Muslim community to confront that threat as opposed to branding everybody who attends a mosque as a potential enemy of the United States of America,” Earnest said Tuesday.

Seven years ago, Obama’s key audience was Muslims around the world, a constituency he described as vital to allied efforts to stamp out the kind of violent extremism that plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Back then, the centerpiece of his outreach was a June 2009 speech at Cairo University in which he pleaded for “a new beginning,” acknowledged “civilization’s debt to Islam” and highlighted the contributions of American Muslims.

“They have fought in our wars, they have served in our government, they have stood for civil rights, they have started businesses, they have taught at our universities, they’ve excelled in our sports arenas, they’ve won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building and lit the Olympic Torch,” he said.

Obama is certain to echo that part of his Cairo message on Wednesday as he visits the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque, holds a round table with key community figures and makes remarks.

Obama has visited mosques in Cairo and Jakarta as president, but never before one on U.S. soil. He has delivered impassioned pleas for religious acceptance before, as recently as his appearance at the House Democrats’ annual retreat and his State of the Union address, and years earlier when he defended plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York City. He has continued the practice of holding annual dinners at the White House to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Obama officials cite an unlikely model for this latest outreach: George W. Bush. They note with approval Bush’s visit to the Islamic Center of Washington just days after the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes.

Bush had declared a “war on terrorism” not quite 12 hours after the attacks. But he hurried to the Islamic Center of Washington, a mosque and cultural center, less than a week later, quoted the Quran, and warned that Americans unleashing their anger on fellow Americans who follow Islam “represent the worst of humankind.”


“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war,” he said.

Bush worked enormously hard for eight years to tamp down anti-Islam sentiment at home, though policies like the war in Iraq undercut his outreach to Muslims around the world. Aides frequently observed in private that “public diplomacy” messaging efforts to win over Middle Eastern audiences couldn’t compete with the reality of America policies that angered Muslims.

And Bush tried to shape his language to avoid offending followers of Islam overseas. He shied from describing America’s enemies as “Islamic terrorists,” though for a brief time in 2006 he called them “Islamic radicals,” only to drop the expression after Saudi Arabia objected. Early on he dubbed the war on terrorism a “crusade,” a bland term in the West that remains deeply controversial for many Middle Eastern Muslims. Angry with himself over the unnecessary provocation, Bush in June 2004 trimmed Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famous D-Day message to leave out a reference to “the great crusade” of defeating Nazi Germany.

Some former Obama aides say this president faces some of the same challenges overseas — that policies like his drone war outweigh earnest diplomatic entreaties for popular support. But many praise Bush’s efforts.

“That was one of the real contributions, despite all the other problems, that George W. Bush made after 9/11, when he basically said, after going to a mosque in Washington, ‘We are not at war with Islam or Muslims,’” former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said at a Democratic debate in November.

At home, it’s unclear what sort of clout Obama’s message will have as his consequential two-term presidency winds down — and with whom. But he’ll avoid picking fights with any Republicans by name on Wednesday, even if his targets are obvious, his spokesman said.

According to Earnest, “I wouldn’t expect any of the candidates tomorrow to enjoy the benefit of being singled out by the president of the United States.”

Candidate Obama inherited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and promised to end them. But his successor will inherit conflicts in both countries — a sobering reality not lost on anyone at the White House. That Obama started his term with outreach to Muslim audiences in Cairo and ends it reaching out to Muslim audiences in Baltimore shows that the next president will also take up a war of words that began shortly after 9/11.

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As Zika virus spreads, United States reports sexually transmitted case

Miami: Texas reported a case of the Zika virus being sexually transmitted Tuesday, fueling fears over the rapid spread of the disease blamed for a surge in the number of brain-damaged babies.

With concern growing that an outbreak sweeping Latin America could spread much farther, health authorities in the southern US state said they had confirmation of the virus being transmitted by sexual contact and not just tropical mosquitoes.

That is a troubling prospect for the United States, Canada and Europe, where Zika had so far only appeared in travelers returning from affected areas.

"The patient was infected with the virus after having sexual contact with an ill individual who returned from a country where Zika virus is present" this year, a Dallas County statement read.

An employee of the Health Secretariat fumigates against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika. AFP

The county subsequently tweeted that the virus was contracted from someone who had traveled to Venezuela, and that a second case of Zika imported from Venezuela has also been documented.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the Zika infection but did not investigate how it was transmitted, a spokesman told AFP.

Last month, the CDC said it was aware of one reported case of sexual transmission of Zika and one case of the virus being present in a man's semen after it disappeared from his blood.

Zika, which was first identified in Uganda in 1947, causes relatively mild flu-like symptoms and a rash.

But there is growing alarm over an apparent link between the current outbreak and both a rise in birth defects and a potentially crippling neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, have reported a surge in cases of microcephaly — which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads — since the Zika outbreak was declared in the region last year.

The virus is spread primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, whose habitat is concentrated in the tropics — giving temperate countries an apparent reprieve.

But sexual transmission would complicate matters.

"The majority of Zika infections are asymptomatic," said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at Oxford University.

"Is there a risk of sexual transmission from people who had asymptomatic infection? For how long can sperm be infectious? This highlights our ignorance of this virus."

Global risk

A day after declaring the spike in serious birth defects in South America an international emergency, the World Health Organization said it had created a global Zika response unit to contain the virus.

WHO expert Anthony Costello emphasized the urgency of rapid action, stressing there was no reason to believe the crisis would remain limited to Latin America.

"We know that the mosquitoes that carry Zika virus... are present through most of Africa, parts of southern Europe and many parts of Asia, particularly south Asia," he said.

Underlining Costello's point, Thai officials announced a man had contracted the virus in the country.

Cape Verde and Indonesia have also reported domestic Zika cases.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies joined the WHO in declaring an "emergency," and appealed for 2.4 million Swiss francs ($2.36 million) to support its response in the Americas.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi meanwhile announced it had begun research into a vaccine for Zika, for which there is currently no specific treatment.

Developing a vaccine could however take years, experts say.

Free abortion pills

In Brazil, which has been hardest hit, Olympics organizers said they are concerned but downplayed fears -- one day after the government warned pregnant women not to attend the Games.

"We are sure we will win this battle and it will not affect the Games," said Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada.

The Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro from August 5 to 21, during the southern hemisphere winter, which means there will be fewer mosquitoes, organizers stressed.

A Dutch women's rights group meanwhile offered to send free pills to trigger an abortion to pregnant women in Latin America, a region known for its restrictive abortion laws.

"We are extremely worried that (the outbreak) might cause increasing unsafe abortions," said Rebecca Gomperts, founder and director of Women on Web.

Since October, Brazil has reported 3,670 suspected cases of microcephaly, of which 404 have been confirmed -- up from 147 in 2014.

In all, more than 1.5 million Brazilians are estimated to have been infected with Zika.

Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Puerto Rico have all warned women not to get pregnant.

Mexico announced it was creating special brigades to address areas likely to have more mosquitoes.

And Peru performed health checks on all Sao Paulo footballers visiting Trujillo for a Copa Libertadores match. They were all clear of Zika, dengue and chikungyuna.

Some health experts urge condom use, while others say abstinence is the only way to avoid Zika.

"Don't have sex with a virus, it's that simple," said Jill Rabin, co-chief of the division of ambulatory care at Women's Health Programs at Northwell Health in New York.

AFP

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Bomber kills 16 at Quetta polio centre

Agencies

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QUETTA - A suicide bomber yesterday killed at least 16 people, 13 of them policemen, outside a polio-eradication centre in Quetta.

The bomb blew up a police van that had just arrived at the centre to provide an escort for workers in a drive to immunise children under five.
The attack killed at least 13 policemen, one paramilitary officer and two civilians, officials said, adding 25 people were wounded.

At least three vehicles were also blown up in the explosion, while human remains lay strewn across the area, along with items of clothing, including caps and shoes of policemen.

The law-enforcement agencies and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the dead and injured to Civil Hospital.
The condition of eight injured was reported critical by the paramedics at the hospital.
The law enforcers cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, confirming the incident, said the personnel of law-enforcement agencies were among the dead and injured.
He said: “We are living in a conflict zone and hostile agencies are targeting us.
It is a conflict zone and hostile agencies have been carrying out sabotage acts after China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other mega projects were announced in the region.
” Bugti said it was being investigated whether it was a suicide attack or a bomb blast.

Some officials began to gather evidence from the scene while others were collecting body parts.
Eyewitness Shabbir Ahmed, a 32-year-old police constable, said he had been deployed to protect a polio-vaccination team that was due to leave for various neighbourhoods of Quetta at 10am.
“Suddenly, there was a loud bang and I fell to the ground, I could not see anything, there was dust everywhere.
Then I heard people screaming and sirens of ambulances,” he continued, adding he had received shrapnel wounds to his stomach, hands, legs and feet.

“It was a suicide blast; we have gathered evidence from the scene,” Balochistan IGP Ahsan Mehboob said.
“The police team had arrived to escort teams for the polio campaign,” he confirmed.

Pakistani Taliban and Jundullah separately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ahmed Marwat, a commander and spokesman for Jundullah, said his group was responsible for the attack.
“We claim the bomb blast on the polio office.
In the coming days, we will make more attacks on polio vaccination offices and workers,” he said by telephone.
The Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility in a statement released by their spokesman, Mohammad Khorasani.

The teams working to immunise children in Pakistan against polio are often targeted by Taliban and other militants who say the campaign is a cover for Western spies or accuse workers of distributing drugs designed to sterilise children.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, the World Health Organization says.

The campaign to eradicate the virus in Pakistan has had some recent success, with new cases down last year, but violence against vaccination workers has slowed the effort.
In 2014 the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years, falling to 52 in 2015.

Islamist opposition to all forms of inoculation mounted after the CIA organised a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest, but most impoverished province, is also home to an insurgency that has claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers and militants since it reignited in 2004, with rebels often attacking government installations and personnel.

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Freed Guantanamo detainees say they seek peace and quiet in Ghana

ACCRA (Reuters) - Two Yemenis transferred to Ghana after their release from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba said on Monday they hoped to live peacefully and rebuild their lives in the West African country.

Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih al-Dhuby were held in Guantanamo for more than a decade. Their transfer to Ghana was announced by the U.S. Defense Department last week.

"We were wrongly arrested for 14 years without any charge against us but we are not looking for revenge. We want to live in Ghana quietly and peacefully and we want to put our life together," Bin Atef told state radio on Monday.

Dozens of countries have received former Guantanamo Bay detainees but the transfers of Bin Atef and Dhuby were the first to Ghana.

The government has granted permission for the two to remain in the country for two years, subject to security clearances, and has sought to play down concerns about their presence in Ghana.

U.S. Government documents posted online by the New York Times identified Dhuby, who was sent to Guantanamo in May 2002 after his capture in Afghanistan, as someone who had been asessed as "a probable member" of al Qaeda. Bin Atef was identified by in the same documents as "an admitted member of the Taliban."

Both men had been cleared for release by the Pentagon years ago, however.

"I just want the listeners and the people of Ghana to know that we are not a part of any bad group, like al-Qaeda or anything like that," Bin Atef said on state-run UniiqFM.

Some religious and political groups, including Ghana's main opposition political party, have strongly criticized the government for accepting the men.
But Dhuby may have won some support by saying he was a big fan of Ghana's national soccer team, along with his fellow Guantanamo detainees, in his comments on national radio on Monday.
"We were very excited to come here because we love people in Ghana - somebody like Asamoah Gyan. We know him, we like him very much just as other people like him," Dhuby said.
Asamoah Gyan led Ghana's national team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup played in South Africa.
"In the name of Allah we want to thank the president and the good people of Ghana of the decision to accept us," Dhuby said

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Islamic State claims responsibility for Baghdad mall attack that killed 18

Baghdad: The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Baghdad mall attack that killed 18 people on Monday. Gunmen stormed into the Jawhara Mall after setting off a car bomb and launching a suicide attack at its entrance.

Iraqi officials say the attack which lasted over an hour, killed at least 18 people and wounded 50 in the city's mainly Shiite east.

The IS statement, posted online shortly after the attack, said a car bomb and four IS fighters carried out the attack, targeting an area where many Shiite Muslims are known to gather and warned of "worse" to come. Iraqi officials say the attack was carried out by seven men, one of whom died when he detonated his explosive vest at the start of the attack. The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled.

Iraqi officials initially described the attack as a hostage situation, estimating that 50 people were trapped inside the complex. But Iraqi forces soon surrounded the building and landed troops on the roof. They clashed with the attackers inside, killing two of them, and arresting the other four.

At least four police officers were among those killed in the assault, which lasted around an hour and a half, according to police and medical officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Following the attack, authorities shut down the city's highly fortified Green Zone, home to a number of foreign embassies and most of the country's political elite. A number of major roads, shopping malls and bridges around the Iraqi capital were also closed for fear of follow-up attacks.

Also on Monday evening, a car bomb in southeast Baghdad in a crowded market area killed five and wounded 12, according to hospital and police officials.

Another deadly attack was carried out in the town of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles (90 kilometers) north of Baghdad in Diyala province. A double suicide bombing at a cafe killed 24 and wounded 52, according to hospital and police officials. Police officials say the cafe was frequented by militia fighters under the government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces and many fighters are among the dead.

The Islamic State group suffered a major defeat last month when Iraqi forces drove the extremists out of the western city of Ramadi, capital of the sprawling Anbar province. The group still controls much of northern and western Iraq.

The IS rampage across Iraq in the summer of 2014 was halted several miles away from Baghdad, but the group has claimed a number of attacks in the heavily guarded capital since then.

AP

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Attacking AU forces in Burundi a mistake, says Uganda

The minister of Defence, Doctor Crispus Kiyonga addresses journalists during a press conference about the peace talks of Burundi at Uganda Media Centre, Kampala on 8/1/2016. PHOTO BY JULIET KASIRYE

Uganda, the chief mediator in the Burundi talks, has said the president of the East African nation, Pierr Nkurunziza, would be committing a grave mistake by attacking the African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

Burundi has been ensnared in a political crisis in which close to 400 people have died and about 300,000 forced to flee into neigbouring countries in the East African region.

The violence erupted after Nkurunziza launched his bid to stand for another term in office after completing the constitutional two five year terms. He won the controversial election with a resounding victory in July, triggering further violence that has concentrated in Bujumbura and its suburbs.

The 54-member AU gave Burundi a four-day deadline on December 17 to accept a 5,000-strong force to halt months of violence. However, Nkurunziza on December 30 threatened to fight the proposed AU peacekeepers if they set foot on Burundian soil, defying intense global pressure to accept the force.

“Shooting at the African Union peacekeepers would be a big mistake. We are all members of AU and we are bound by its resolutions. If one is not satisfied with AU’s decision, they can challenge it through proper channels like through the AU summit,” Uganda’s defense minister, Crispus Kiyonga on Friday.

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