Iceland held a memorial Sunday for the country's first glacier lost to climate change. The ice melted away after being frozen for 700 years. A bronze plaque unveiled at the site warns that over the next 200 years, all of Iceland's glaciers will meet the same fate.
During the lavish party, the pop icon was serenaded at the bash by her son David Banda, 13, while her daughter Mercy James, also 13, played the piano. David, surrounded by a group of friends, held the microphone and began to sing "Your Song " by Elton John when his mother joined him and sang along.
Newscasts amp; VideosFirefighters in Erie, Penn., kneel in grief outside a home daycare where five children died in a blaze on Aug. 11, 2019.
A funeral service was held Saturday in Erie for 8 year old La;Myhia Jones, 6 year old Luther Jones Jr., 4 year old Ava Jones and 9 month old Jaydan Augustyniak. All are siblings. The funeral for 2 year old Dalvin Pacley will be held Monday.Three of the victims were the children of a volunteer firefighter, Luther Jones. Their mother, Shevona Overton, is also the mother of Jaydan. An adult and two adolescent boys were able to escape. Fire officials suspect last Sunday 's blaze was accidental and possibly electrical.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday left for home after concluding his two day state visit to Bhutan during which he held talks with the country's leaders to further deepen the bilateral ties.
A three judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by the Trump administration to an order by a Los Angeles federal judge who found the government was violating a 1997 settlement. The settlement requires the government to provide detained minors with safe and sanitary conditions.U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee issued the order in 2017 after finding that children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody did not have adequate food, clean water or basic hygiene items and were held in conditions that deprived them of sleep.
The minister made the remarks while delivering the opening address for the IBM Think Singapore 2019 conference held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center.In his speech, Chan spoke about how the world faces the "grave challenge" of fragmentation. There are many parts of the world that do not believe in integration, he said, adding that they risk being fragmented.
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Turkey and the United States appeared to climb down from another crisis in eastern Syria in early August. The agreement to coordinate the establishment of a safe zone along the Syria Turkish border leads to another stage in a process that began in December when the White House announced that the United States would leave Syria. It is a process that neither pleases Turkey nor U.S. partners on the ground among the Syrian Democratic Forces and it likely ensures more crises in the future. The decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw from Syria in December 2018 was presaged by threats from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to turn the east of the Euphrates into a peaceful and livable place for its true owners just like the other areas we have made secure in Syria. Tukey had asserted last year that ISIS was defeated and that it could deal with eastern Syria if the United States left, including tamping down ISIS remnants. This threatened a collapse of eastern Syria as the political echelons linked to the SDF opened discussions with Damascus and scrambled to send a delegation to Washington in January to encourage the United States to stay. In the end the United States did stay in Syria, seeking a slow drawdown and asking European countries to contribute more troops. The safe zone concept has been increasingly floated since January 2019 with claims that it could reach thirty kilometers into Syria and run along some four hundred kilometers of border to the Euphrates river. That s around the size of Connecticut and takes in most of the Kurdish population centers of eastern Syria. U.S. officials and lawmakers, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, have said that while the United States understands Turkey s concerns, the United States should not ditch its SDF partners who defeated ISIS in eastern Syria, liberated Raqqa, and lost thousands of fighters between 2014 and 2019. The Pentagon understands the importance of keeping eastern Syria stable, detailing in a Department of Defense Inspector General report released on August 6 how the U.S. led coalition against ISIS was investing in training 110,000 security forces in eastern Syria. The Pentagon report details how the drawdown since December has led to concerns about ISIS resurgence and also notes that the Syrian Democratic Forces in place today face challenges securing former ISIS supporters in detention facilities. In short, eastern Syria needs more investment and yet the crisis with Turkey continues to bubble up every few months at the most critical time. U.S. envoy James Jeffrey, who is both the Special Representative for Syria and the anti ISIS envoy, went to Turkey on July 22 to seek to avert the latest Turkish threat to launch a military operation into eastern Syria. Media in Turkey emphasized that Ankara was serious this time about launching an operation, one it has threatened to do for a year. Ankara s calculations here are multilayered. Prior to the Afrin operation in January 2018, where Turkish forces and Turkish backed Syrian rebels attacked the Kurdish People s Protection Units (YPG) in an area they held in northwest Syria, Ankara had warned about the operation for months. The key came in January 2018 when Turkey was able to get assurances from Russia about using Syrian air space. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in July 2019 that Turkey would launch the operation if the safe zone was not established. Anadolu s report at the time noted that Turkey s threats were also tied to the S 400 controversy where Turkey has purchased Russia s air defense system and the United States has sought to remove Ankara from the F 35 program. The move might trigger a unilateral Turkish military operation, Turkey s Anadolu news noted Erdogan said on July 26 that Turkey was determined to shatter the terror corridor east of the Euphrates, no matter how the negotiations with the U.S. concludes. Turkey views U.S. partners among the SDF, particularly the YPG, as part of this terror corridor. He said, those who put their trust in foreign powers in the region will be put underground. These are harsh words from Turkey. Ankara directly links the potential operation in eastern Syria with the F 35 and S 400 issue, which appears to show that the threat of the operation is meant to deter the United States from sanctions over the S 400. Yet Ankara insists that in either scenario it will eventually go into eastern Syria. The only way to avoid this is for a safe zone that is largely on Ankara s terms. The United States scrambled in late July and the first days of August to prevent the operation. Turkey said it could not tolerate the cancer on its southern border, while recently appointed U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said any operation would be unacceptable on August 5. As if on cue, someone used the Special Operation Joint Task Force Twitter account for Operation Inherent Resolve to tweet on August 5 that our partners in northeast Syria have sacrificed much to consolidate gains and keep peace and stability. The following day, another coalition Twitter account highlighted the role of its partners in eastern Syria. Officials with the SDF warned that a Turkish operation would lead to a major conflict. Ankara said that it wants to do in eastern Syria what it carried out in Afrin, Jarabulus and Al Bab. These are the three areas that Turkey occupies in northern Syria from which it launched operations in 2016 and 2018. Ankara told Turkish media on August 4 that it had informed Moscow and Washington about its upcoming operation into areas in eastern Syria. This would allegedly mean Turkish armor and air forces could attack the SDF, which is partnered with the United States. How that would work, considering that the coalition controls the air space in eastern Syria, was unclear. Russia has frequently slammed the United States for occupying eastern Syria, alleging that Washington trades oil and trains terrorists. Turkey s improving relations with Russia over the S 400 deal and Ankara s claim it informed Ankara come in this context. On August 7, the U.S. Embassy in Syria announced that a compromise had been hammered out. A rapid implementation of the agreement would address Turkey s concerns. An operations center in Turkey would be made to coordinate the safe zone. The safe zone would become a peace corridor and every effort would be made so that displaced Syrians can return to their country. Of interest in the statement was the claim that it would be done rapidly and that the United States had adopted Ankara s language of a peace corridor. The third aspect of the U.S. Turkey agreement was the assertion that Syrian refugees, many of them Sunni Arabs from other parts of Syria, would return to eastern Syria. In the past, Turkey has tried to return Syrian refugees to other parts of Syria. Reports in March 2018 noted that Turkish officials said they could not host 3.5 million Syrians forever. Turkey s TRT Turk said in March that 330,000 refugees had returned to Syria, some of them to Afrin. But these are not areas they were necessarily from. This raises concerns, particularly among Kurds, that the larger objective of a peace corridor would be demographic change, not just in Afrin but along the border area. Reports that Turkey envisions sending seven hundred thousand Syrians into the area of the peace corridor appear to confirm these concerns that Ankara s plans are multilayered. Ankara wants to defeat the SDF on the border, create tensions between the United States and its SDF partners, compel Washington into a deal over the S 400 by using Syria as leverage, and repatriate almost a million Syrians to reduce pressure on Turkey s economy. If Ankara only meets two of these objectives, then the recent crises over eastern Syria would be successful. Ankara s claims that eastern Syria would be returned to its true owners, a term that has been used before regarding Afrin, leads to questions about the message sent by assertions that those living in eastern Syria today are not the true owners. The United States, however, has no interest in becoming an arbiter of a land registry in eastern Syria; the coalition has focused primarily on security issues and the drawdown of forces after December that would reduce the number of contractors, diplomats and the semblance of investment in civil affairs. The latest Department of Defense Inspector General report made that clear as well. This leaves a constant cloud of crises hanging over eastern Syria. On the one hand there are the estimated fifteen thousand ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq and the presence of ISIS sleeper cells. Also, there is the difficulty of securing former ISIS members in detention facilities and at Al Hol camp. While the United States wants the SDF to focus on stabilization and security, inevitably the SDF is concerned about Ankara s threats and what a safe zone will mean. Can the SDF be asked to abandon areas along the border that it sacrificed heavily for in 2014 and 2015 in the battle with ISIS in places like Kobani? The U.S. experience in other places, whether Iraq, Somalia, Libya Afghanistan, or training Palestinian security forces, shows that the United States has done a poor job of nation building and acting as an arbiter between competing national groups. The approach to fighting ISIS has shown that current U.S. policy is primarily about working by, with and through local forces who help pinpoint and neutralize members of groups like ISIS. This policy is not focused on changing political systems and administering territory. 1 2 Next View the discussion thread. copy; Copyright 2019 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved
New Delhi: A day after flight operations were disrupted at Hong Kong's international airport, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) today issued an advisory to its citizens for travelling to Hong Kong. ANI quoted MEA in a statement as saying, "While operations are likely to resume on August 13, however, flights are likely to continue to be delayed and or cancelled as it is possible that more protests may be held.""Indian passengers are advised to be in touch with airlines to find alternative travel routes to avoid inconvenience, till normalcy is restored in airport operations," the statement read.
Recently, the United Nations (UN) reported that children of some Islamic State (ISIS) fighters are likely being held in secret detention facilities and are not allowed contact with family members, even those who are not part of ISIS. While this is yet another example of family separation, it also reflects how deplorably children are treated during and after conflict particularly when they are stigmatized by terrorism. Children of ISIS fighters or those associated with the group, numbering around 3,000, have already long suffered because of their parents choices, including from horrific living conditions inside camps as the so called caliphate falls apart. For example, the infant of Shamima Begum, an ISIS supporter who left the UK at age 15 to travel to Syria, recently died of pneumonia, a highly preventable and curable disease, because of a severe lack of health care resources in the detainment camp in which Begum had been living. But governments both those who currently house detainment camps for foreign fighters and their families and those whose citizens went abroad to fight with ISIS need not further punish these children for the sins of their parents.
According to a report in Digital Trends late Sunday, the patent shows "a charging device for removable input modules. While there is no specific mention of the Xbox in the application, a couple of the drawings feature all too familiar buttons and symbols". Possible features for the controllers include built in speakers, a headphone jack, and wireless headphones support.
San Francisco, Aug 12 (IANS) In an apparent bid to take on the popular Nintendo gaming Switch, a new Microsoft patent has revealed plans for controllers that would turn your smartphone into hand held Xbox.According to a report in Digital Trends late Sunday, the patent shows "a charging device for removable input modules. While there is no specific mention of the Xbox in the application, a couple of the drawings feature all too familiar buttons and symbols ".
Facebook Share to TwitterTwitterTwitter Share to LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn Share to WhatsAppWhatsAppWhatsApp Share to Pinterest Pinterest Pinterest By AuthorTelanganaToday Published: 10th Aug 2019 7:49 pmG.Kishan Reddy, Hon ble Minister of State for Home Affairs inaugurates Mana Mahathmudu Photo Exhibition at Secunderabad Railway Station"Hyderabad: The Regional Outreach Bureau, Ministry of Communications, and South Central Railway have jointly organised a photographic exhibition of Mana Mahatmudu at Secunderabad Railway Station Platform 1 on Saturday.Inaugurating the exhibition, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy urged the youth to follow the footsteps of the Mahatma Gandhi. He requested the citizens to take part in Mahatma Gandhi 's 150th birth anniversary celebrations actively.
Copy URL A JAPANESE man has been arrested for allegedly sending a threatening fax to an exhibition that featured a controversial depiction of South Korean wartime sex slaves, police said today.
Security experts at Check Point said a hacker could change messages and the sender s identity, essentially putting words in someone s mouth, the FT reported on Thursday (Aug. 7). Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 and was alerted to the security issue in 2018.At the Black Hat cybersecurity conference held earlier this month in Las Vegas, Check Point s head of product vulnerability research Oded Vanunu said Facebook blamed the flaws on limitations that can t be solved due to their structure and architecture. Facebook declined to comment, the FT said.
But Sheldon's mission hit a road block this week when he became ill and decided to put his business, Clydesdale Bus Lines, up for sale. Clydesdale is actively seeking a new owner due to health issues, Sheldon said in an email. Clydesdale is operating under a restrictive schedule.
A team of researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) has developed a low cost and handheld device, which can detect bacteria quickly. The research team led by Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer of the department of chemistry, and Prof. Siddhartha S. Ghosh of the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering said rapid detection of bacteria will not only be helpful in healthcare but also in anti bioterrorism and environmental monitoring applications.The novel, low cost, bio compatible sensor can detect bacteria almost instantaneously without the need for cell culture and microbiological assays, said a statement issued by the team. At present, the detection of bacteria in body fluids is done in laboratories.
NEW DELHI: The sudden demise of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart and popular leader Sushma Swaraj has sent shockwaves across the country. After the former external affairs minister breathed her last at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, tributes poured in for her.After her death at around 9 pm on Tuesday, her mortal remains were taken to her residence in Dhawan Deep Building in Janpath area where people paid their last respects. Her mortal remains were then taken to the BJP headquarters where party members paid tributes. Her last rites were held at Lodhi Road electric crematorium.