A once abandoned public bathroom off Baghdad's Tahrir Square has become a tiny shrine to Iraq's protest movement. Covered in a mosaic of thousands of post-it notes, demonstrators call it the 'Wall of Wishes' https://t.co/JCpFaoimpIpic.twitter.com/ZF3CUc7MhJ
VIDEO: Thousands of farmers drove their tractors to Berlin's famed Brandenburg Gate to protest against new environmental regulations they say threaten their livelihoods https://t.co/TYn9cS0OVqpic.twitter.com/PrNFPk7INp
A Secret Service agent scans the skies over the White House during a lockdown because of reporters of a stray airplane over Washington. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The Navy's sea commando force has its own unique insignia for decades.
* The Trident is a gold pin that identifies U.S. Navy SEALs and has become the center of a controversy involving Edward Gallagher. * The pin is filled with meaning, including everything from the eagle to the pistol. * The pin is also known by other nicknames, including "Chicken on a Fork" and "The Budweiser."
The U.S. Navy's SEAL commando force is arguably the most famous elite force on the planet. Trained in warfare on land and sea, SEALs have fought continuously since 9/11 in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria—and likely places the general public won't know about.
The symbol of the SEALs is the Trident, a gold pin identifying the wearer as part of a select group of those who have endured SEAL training and are certified special warfare operators.
Reports now say a flock of birds, a balloon, or something else, may have been the culprit, but the response to it was telling, regardless.
Something of a mystery has emerged after a brief lockdown of the White House and U.S. Capitol due to an alleged violation of the heavily restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. this morning. Reports now indicate that a flock of birds, a weather balloon, or something else besides a plane or helicopter, appears to have triggered the alert, which sent fighter jets and helicopters scrambling into the air. Whatever the case, the incident underscores the very real challenges involved in protecting the skies above the nation's capital, and short-range air defense, in general, especially as novel threats, such as increasingly capable small unmanned aircraft, continue to emerge and evolve.
The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy as its dry dock area is flooded three months ahead of its slated production schedule, October 29, 2019. US Navy/MCS3 Class Adam Ferrero
While the first-in-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford faces lingering problems, the second Ford-class carrier, John F. Kennedy, just hit a milestone ahead of schedule.
The Kennedy's progress is due in part to its status as second in the class, allowing its builders and crew to glean know-how picked up by the Ford's designers and sailors.
Days after the first-in-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford sailed out of a "challenging" post-shakedown work period that was extended three months because of maintenance problems, the dry dock holding the second Ford-class carrier, the John F. Kennedy, was flooded, launching the carrier three months early.
Beijing opens five posts in past two years as US is caught 'in a period of limbo' and Australia trails at 27th
China has ambitions to rival the US as the world's diplomatic superpower with Beijing's foreign affairs ministry running more embassies and consulates around the world than Washington's state department, which still has a quarter of its key positions unfilled.
The 2019 Lowy global diplomatic index maps the size and reach of 61 diplomatic networks around the world by embassies, consulates, permanent missions and other diplomatic posts.
Tracking all G20 and OECD countries, and most Asian nations, it showed an emerging China rivalling and, numerically at least, surpassing the US, caught "in a period of limbo".
China has 276 posts, three more than the US, and 96 consulates to the US's 88, a reflection of its emphasis on its economic and diplomatic interests.
WNU Editor: China's global business interests is what is driving this diplomatic push. Millions of Chinese citizens are also travelling as tourists, and they have an expectation that there is a Chinese diplomatic post in the country that they are visiting. It is also a question of prestige and image. The Chinese want to be seen as a global super power, and having a fully functional diplomatic post in almost every country in the world is part of that goal.
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Collin P. Green gives remarks Dec. 1, 2017, during a promotion ceremony at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, where he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral (upper half). (U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Osvaldo Equite/RELEASED)
Following the firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Sunday, speculation now centers on how another Navy official will fare in the wake of the Eddie Gallagher case.
Rear Adm. Collin Green, who leads Navy Special Warfare Command, pursued actions against Gallagher after the SEAL was found not guilty of various war crimes. Against a tweeted countermand from President Trump, Green last week ordered a review against Gallagher for posing with other SEALs — who were not punished — alongside a dead enemy fighter.
Ankara has reportedly been blackmailing NATO, refusing to sign the proposed defense plan for the Baltics and Poland unless the alliance officially recognizes Kurdish-led militia in northern Syria as a "terrorist group."
Agreeing on a new NATO defense plan for the eastern European countries has escalated from a formality into a true diplomatic battle, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing four senior sources within the bloc.
"[The Turks) are taking eastern Europeans hostage, blocking approval of this military planning until they get concessions," one of the sources said.
Over the last two years, Israel has warned about Iran's entrenchment in Syria. But Iran has continued its role in Syria, and it continues to threaten Israel and transfer precision guidance to Hezbollah for converting its rockets.
Israel has been monitoring Iranian entrenchment in Syria, weapons transfers that move to Iraq and also to Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as Iranian-backed groups in Gaza. On November 12 Jerusalem put in motion operation 'Black Belt,' the attack on a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander named Bahaa Abu al-Ata. He was a "ticking bomb," Israel said after the operation, which led to 450 rockets being fired in retaliation from Gaza. There is another ticking bomb in Syria, where Israel struck numerous targets on November 20, a day after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired rockets at Israel. One false move by Israel or Iran now could lead to a major regional war. Jerusalem must gamble on its precision airstrikes to deter Tehran.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks crawled higher on Tuesday, and all three major Wall Street indexes notched record levels, as upbeat comments by President Donald Trump on trade talks eclipsed some softer-than-anticipated economic data.
Trump said the United States and China were close to an agreement on the first phase of a deal, while stressing Washington's support for protesters in Hong Kong, a point of contention between the world's two largest economies.
"Right now the characterization is things are pretty good so we are kind of gaining on it, but until it is done, it is not done," said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina. "So a holding pattern is probably, unfortunately, a very appropriate place for the market to be right about now."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Tuesday that he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists over their role in drug and human trafficking.
"They will be designated ... I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process," Trump said in an interview with conservative media personality Bill O'Reilly that aired on Tuesday.
Once a group is designated as a terrorist organization, under U.S. law it is illegal for people in the United States to knowingly offer support and its members cannot enter the country and may be deported. Financial institutions that become aware they have funds connected to the group must block the money and alert the U.S. Treasury Department.
WNU Editor: This reminds me of the debate that many in Washington had in the 1990s on how to confront and defeat terror organizations like Al Qaeda. The strategy was to use the legal process to bring these terror leaders to justice. It did not work. Twenty years later I feel we are now at a similar point on how to battle and defeat Mexico's drug cartels .... because the legal process is not working. There is also the growing realization that Mexico is losing this war. When Mexican government forces in Culiacan were routed last month by cartel gunmen, that told everyone that the Mexican government had lost control and sovereignty of this part of Mexico. Bottom line, a new approach is needed. Will the U.S. go as far as launching drone strikes against Mexican cartel strongholds? We shall see. But President Trump's commitment to designate these vicious and brutal organizations as terror groups will change the dynamics on how the U.S. battles these criminal organizations, and there will be consequences when the first drone strike has been launched.
In the 1990s, I represented a number of international fishing and timber and mining companies that did business with Russia. This was not so long after the fall of the Soviet Union and there were a bunch of large Russian companies — many of them formerly state-owned — looking to do deals with my clients, mostly American and Western European companies. My clients would set up long term deals with these Russian companies which nearly always went bad quickly because the Russian company would grab whatever money there was and walk away.
This would leave my clients dumbfounded at how the Russian company would so "irrationally" sacrifice so much money in the long term to grab a relatively small amount of money in the short term. I would find myself explaining the following to them:
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team provide security as a CH-47 Chinook helicopter lands after a key leader engagement in Southeastern Afghanistan. The 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team is deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Casey Nelsen)
A beat cop's street sense proved to be a major factor in meeting the ongoing threat of insider attacks on a recent Army National Guard unit's deployment to Afghanistan, the commander said Wednesday.
"One of the civilian skill sets that was greatly beneficial in selecting soldiers for Guardian Angels was the fact that we have so many law enforcement officers within our formation," said Col. Matthew Smith, commander of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) of the Georgia Guard.
About one-third of the IBCT's soldiers "are involved in law enforcement in some way, shape or fashion" in their civilian jobs, Smith said at a roundtable session with reporters at the Pentagon on the IBCT's deployment, from December 2018 to September 2019.
"They're trained in how to read people," said Smith, who was joined by officers and top enlisted personnel at the session. "A lot of the Guardian Angel mission is to anticipate an opportunity for attack."
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley meets service members in front of the USS Sirocco in Manama, Bahrain on November 25, 2019. REUTERS/Idrees Ali/File Photo
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The top U.S. general, Mark Milley, arrived in Iraq on Tuesday amid a spate of anti-government protests in the Middle East and questions about how they could impact Iranian influence in the region.
Anti-government protests in Iraq erupted in early October and have grown into the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Lebanon has faced five weeks of anti-government protests, fueled by anger at corruption among the sectarian politicians.
* Explosions didn't appear to be related to demontrations
Five people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in three simultaneous explosions that rocked Baghdad late on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said.
It was the first apparently co-ordinated attack since anti-government protests erupted nearly two months ago, but it did not appear to be related to demonstrations.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the bombings, but they bore the hallmarks of an ISIS attack. The terrorist group has a history of similar attacks in the capital and other provinces.
Iraq declared victory over the extremists nearly two years ago but they are still in parts of the country and carry out sporadic attacks.
A statue, decorated with a yellow helmet and mask by anti-government protesters, is surrounded by garbage inside the student union building at the besieged Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, China, November 20, 2019. For more than a week-and-a-half, hundreds of protesters had fortified Polytechnic University's Kowloon peninsula campus and often fought fiery street battles with riot police. But now the number of protesters has dwindled to fewer than 100, turning the grounds that normally teem with 33,000 students and staff into an eerily empty compound scattered with debris and defaced with political slogans. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
The tense standoff between police and protesters at Hong Kong Polytechnic University appeared to be coming to an end early Wednesday, as only one demonstrator was reported to be found during an official search of the campus.
University vice president Alexander Wai, who led seven search teams through the school's grounds, said he couldn't rule out that some people remained, but "the possibility is not very high." He noted that just one woman – who is over 18 and not a student of the university – was discovered Wednesday during the searches. She received medical treatment and counselors were trying to convince her to surrender.
The effort apparently didn't find a man who told reporters before dawn that he is happy living at the university and "everyone can stop worrying about us," according to the Associated Press. But police have cordoned off the area to try to prevent anyone from escaping.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk after Lam took her oath, during the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo
HONG KONG/SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - Tightening control over efforts to manage the upheaval in Hong Kong, the Chinese leadership has set up a crisis command center on the mainland side of the border and is considering replacing its official liaison to the restive semi-autonomous city, people familiar with the matter said.
As violent protests roil Hong Kong, top Chinese leaders in recent months have been managing their response from a villa on the outskirts of Shenzhen, bypassing the formal bureaucracy through which Beijing has supervised the financial hub for two decades.
Ordinarily, communications between Beijing and Hong Kong are conducted through a Chinese government body: the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong. The Liaison Office is housed in a Hong Kong skyscraper stacked with surveillance cameras, ringed by steel barricades and topped by a reinforced glass globe.
WNU Editor: My position on China has not changed since the start of these protests. As long as the city administration stay loyal and the police keep control of the protesters, Beijing will not deploy their security forces.
COMING UP ON @CBSThisMorning: Ousted Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer defends his handling of the Navy SEAL case to @CBSDavidMartin in an exclusive @CBSNews interview.
* Richard Spencer hit out at Trump as he left The Pentagon after being sacked * He said the president 'doesn't really understand the definition of a warfighter' after he intervened to stop Eddie Gallagher's Trident review board * Review could have stripped Gallagher of Trident Pin and honor of being a SEAL * Spencer said the intervention undermines 'good order and discipline' which is 'the backbone of our military'
Fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer has hit out at Donald Trump's decision to intervene in the Eddie Gallagher case, saying the president 'doesn't really understand the full definition of a warfighter.'
Spencer, speaking to CBS News as he left The Pentagon on Monday after being sacked, said the president's intervention sends a message to the troops that 'you can get away with things'.
The 65-year-old, himself a Marine veteran, was particularly incensed at Trump's decision to effectively overrule the peer review process, whereby a panel of Navy SEALs would have decided whether Gallagher was fit to keep his Trident Pin.
Update: The above CBS tweet is very revealing. Once you are fired you cannot give an interview in the Pentagon, and you lose your limo service (i.e. that is Richard Spencer's wife picking him up at the Pentagon on his last day on the job).
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey is refusing to back a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland until the alliance offers Ankara more political support for its fight against Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria, four senior alliance sources said.
Ankara has told its NATO envoy not to sign off on the plan and is taking a tough line in meetings and in private conversations, demanding the alliance recognize the YPG as terrorists in the formal wording, the sources said.
Turkey's NATO delegation was not immediately available for comment. Turkey's defense and foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
Russia said it has showed its new hypersonic nuclear missile system to U.S. inspectors as part of a bilateral arms control treaty ahead of the missile's deployment, Interfax reported Tuesday.
President Vladimir Putin said late last year that Russia would be ready to deploy the Avangard missile system in one year's time. One of several new weapons announced in 2018, the Avangard was touted as a highly maneuverable weapon able to evade the United States' missile defense systems.
The Defense Ministry staged a demo of the Avangard system to a U.S. inspection group that visited Russia on Nov. 24-26, Interfax reported.
"The Russian side held a demonstration to help ensure the viability and effectiveness of the [New] START Treaty," the Russian military was quoted as saying, adding that it plans to put Avangard into combat duty before the end of the year.
F-16 fighter jets and other aircraft belonging to the Turkish air forces are flying over Turkey's capital Ankara in order to test Russian S-400 air and missile defense systems which were delivered between July and September. pic.twitter.com/27wb5R0ajS
The U.S. government has called on its Turkish counterparts for months to not "activate" the radars and abandon the purchase altogether.
Turkey has begun tests of the radars associated with its new Russian S-400s using American-made F-16 Viper and F-4 Phantom II fighters, defying warnings from the United States that this "activation" of the surface-to-air missile systems could prompt new sanctions. U.S. officials had been concerned that the Turkish military might conduct exactly these sorts of tests with the F-35, potentially giving Russia insights into the jets' capabilities, an issue that remains at the center of the spat over Ankara's deal with Moscow to buy the air defense system in the first place. The Pentagon already ejected Turkey from the Joint Strike Fighter program earlier this year and is finalizing efforts to remove Turkish defense contractors from the supply chain, as well.
At pro-gov't rally after deadly protests over fuel prices, General Hossein Salami threatens to 'destroy Iran's enemies'.
Iran will destroy the United States and its allies if they cross Tehran's red lines, the head of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in an address to a pro-government rally denouncing last week's violent protests over the rise in fuel prices.
Addressing thousands of demonstrators in the capital on Monday, General Hossein Salami accused the US, the United Kingdom, Israel and Saudi Arabia of stoking the unrest, in which dozens were killed by Iran's security forces.
In a major blow to terrorist radicalization efforts, European law enforcement agencies have stripped Islamic State propaganda from popular online services such as Google and Twitter.
Over 26,000 items, which included videos, publications, social media accounts and communication channels, were flagged by authorities as being terrorist propaganda. Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, sent those items to several online service providers for removal.
"For the time being, for as far as we know, IS is not present on the internet anymore and we will see how fast, if ever, they will regain service," Belgian Federal Prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said at a press conference Monday.
Read more .... WNU Editor: I am sure there is an ISIS presence here and there on the internet. But it is definitely not the massive presence that it once was.
More News On Efforts To Eliminate ISIS From The Internet
U.S. soldiers with 4th Battalion, 118th Infantry Regiment, 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, North Carolina Army National Guard, attached to the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard, provide M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles for support to Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve in eastern Syria Nov. 1. The mechanized infantry troops will partner with Syrian Democratic Forces to defeat ISIS remnants and protect critical infrastructure in eastern Syria. (Spc. DeAndre Pierce/Army Reserve)
Joint U.S.-Kurdish forces have resumed significant military operations against the Islamic State in northern Syria, the New York Times reported Monday.
"Over the next days and weeks, the pace will pick back up against remnants of ISIS," Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of the U.S.'s Central Command, told reporters in Bahrain over the weekend.
The amping up of military force in the region comes after President Trump called the withdrawal of remaining U.S. troops near Syria's northeastern border at the beginning of October.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombians unhappy with President Iván Duque’s response to nearly a week of boisterous protests are taking to the streets again Wednesday demonstrating over issues ranging from tax reform to shark hunting quotas in the biggest display of unrest the nation has seen in decades.
The daily protests jolting the South American country are proclaiming an unusually diverse set of complaints, though with one similar refrain: an opposition to a government that many believe only looks after the most privileged citizens.
“We feel defenseless to everything,” Lucy Rosales, a pensioner walking in downtown Bogota, said Tuesday. “We don’t feel like we have a voice that represents us. It’s many things that they allowed to accumulate.”
The new march comes a day after Duque’s attempt to quell the unrest by holding talks with a protest steering group hit a snag when members of the National Strike Committee refused to be part of talks the president has called with all social sectors, creating new uncertainty about how long the already costly protests might drag on.
“The government has not been able to learn from the Chilean and Ecuadorian experiences,” said Jorge Restrepo, an economics professor, referring to the recent mass demonstrations in both of those countries. “It has made very many mistakes.”
The steering committee presented a 13-point list of demands Tuesday that asks Duque to withdraw or refrain from tax, labor and pension reforms. The labor and student unions leaders also want Duque to review free trade agreements, eliminate a riot police unit accused in the violent death of an 18-year-old student protester and fully implement the nation’s historic peace accord with leftist rebels.
The organizers want the conservative president to create a separate, independent negotiation process specifically to discuss their demands. It was an idea his administration is at least initially unwilling to concede, contending a more democratic approach would be to involve all Colombians.
“The president has explained that the ideal is to have inclusive spaces, not exclusive ones,” Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez said.
Several protesters said they agreed with the National Strike Committee’s decision not to participate in Duque’s dialogue – which appears to take a page from French President Emmanuel Macron, who opened a “Great National Debate” to involve citizens in drafting reforms after months of angry protests in that country.
“Colombia is used to being lied to,” said Ana Maria Moya, a student participating the protests. “One learns not to trust in words.”
It remains unclear to what extent the National Strike Committee represents protesters in what has become a largely citizen-driven outpouring of discontent. An invitation to gather in a park or bang pots and pans quickly goes viral on WhatsApp and soon hundreds are filling neighborhoods with the angry sound of clanging metal and chants like “Get out Duque!”
Various leaders have tried to capitalize on the momentum, but none yet has come out as the unequivocal voice of the protesters.
“There is a contest over the ownership of the protesters,” Restrepo said. “I see students get out in the streets because they need more social mobility, higher levels of income, more opportunities at least in employment. But then the ones that claim they represent those students in the streets are the unions.”
Colombia is widely considered in need of labor and pension reform. Few retirees currently have access to pensions, with the lowest-income earners the least likely to get one. Labor laws make it difficult to hire new employees. Even as the nation’s economy grows at a healthy 3.3%, unemployment has risen to nearly 11%, the highest level since 2010, Restrepo said.
“I would characterize the demands of the National Strike Committee as highly conservative, regressive and counter-reformist demands,” he said.
Nonetheless, the committee’s message has resonated widely, tapping into the myriad frustrations of Colombians.
For some it is big-picture issues like not fully implementing accords, endemic corruption and persistent economic inequality. For others it is small indignities, like relatively pricey public transportation that is also slow and overcrowded.
One unusual sight in the protests has been that of giant plastic sharks, which at least one demonstrator always seems to be raising above the crowd, decrying a government decision allowing a certain amount of shark fishing.
“It’s like all the groups are feeding off each other,” said Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, a human rights advocate with the Washington Office on Latin America.
Few expected that such a mixed bag of motivations could generate a prolonged protest, though many now think it could continue for some time.
The protest has already been costly. Four people have died, hundreds are injured and millions of dollars have been lost from businesses shuttering during demonstrations.
The patience of some Colombians is beginning to wear thin.
Julio Contreras, a deliveryman who was tear gassed while trying to get 20 kilos (44 pounds) of chicken to restaurants, said he is ready for the protests to be done.
“They’re not letting us work,” he said. “The students should be in the universities and not affecting us.”
___
Associated Press writer Cesar Garcia contributed to this report.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special anti-terrorism tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced seven members of a banned militant group to death Wednesday for their involvement in an attack on a Dhaka cafe that killed more than 20 people, mostly foreigners.
Judge Mojibur Rahman found the men from the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group guilty of various charges including planning the attack, making bombs and murder. An eighth defendant was acquitted.
Rahman announced the decision in front of a packed courtroom amid heavy security.
Five militants took hostages and opened fire on the Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016. Twenty hostages were killed, including 17 from Japan, Italy and India.
The five militants were killed by commandoes during a 12-hour standoff. Two security officials were killed.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rejected it, saying the domestic group was behind it that the international group has no presence in the country.
The attack in the Muslim-majority nation followed several years of smaller attacks targeting scores of individuals deemed by extremists to be enemies of Islam, including secularists, writers, religious minorities, foreigners and activists.
The full verdict was not immediately available Wednesday, but the judge said the men acted against the sovereignty of the country and its constitution in executing the plan for such a big attack in which foreigners had been targeted and killed.
The defendants, who have maintained their innocence, can appeal the verdict.
Investigators found 21 people, including the five gunmen killed at the scene, were involved in the attack. In addition to the eight men who went on trial, eight other suspects were killed in security raids after the attack.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis is planning to change official Catholic Church teaching to declare the use and possession of atomic weapons as “immoral,” a move that makes clear that his rejection of the Cold War-era doctrine of deterrence is to be official church policy.
Francis had declared the possession of nuclear weapons immoral on Sunday in Hiroshima during an emotional encounter with survivors of the U.S. atomic bomb.
On Tuesday, during a press conference en route home from Japan, Francis indicated that his Hiroshima address should be considered part of his magisterium, or official church teaching.
“This must go in the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” he said, referring to the published compendium of official church teaching.
“Not just the use, also the possession,” he said. “Because an accident of possession, or the insanity of a leader or someone, can destroy humanity.”
Francis first articulated his opposition to the doctrine of deterrence in 2017, during a Vatican conference, when he said the possession of nuclear weapons was “to be condemned.”
The shift upended three decades of the Vatican’s tacit acceptance of nuclear arsenals. Starting in 1982, St. John Paul II had held that deterrence could be morally acceptable in the interim as long as it was used as a step toward mutual, verifiable disarmament.
In the ensuing years, however, the Holy See has watched as arms control treaties collapsed, new nuclear powers emerged and the policy of assured mutual destruction resulted in a permanent stockpiling of bombs.
Francis also went further Tuesday in his comments on nuclear energy, saying he would rule out its use until scientists can offer “total security” to ensure that accidents, natural disasters and “crazed” individuals won’t destroy humanity and the environment with nuclear fallout.
Francis offered his “personal opinion” that went beyond the “concern” he expressed in public a day earlier during a meeting with survivors of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The Japanese government strongly backs nuclear energy despite the 2011 “triple disaster,” in which three Fukushima nuclear reactors partially melted down after an earthquake triggered a tsunami. The disaster spewed nuclear fallout across the region and at one point forced the evacuation of 160,000 people.
“I have a personal opinion,” Francis said. “I would not use nuclear energy as long as there’s not a total security on the use.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that a cache of leaked documents proves that Chinese authorities are engaged in massive and systemic repression of Muslims and other minorities in western China, as a number of foreign governments expressed serious concern about the scale of the campaign.
Pompeo said the documents underscored “an overwhelming and growing body of evidence” that China’s leaders are responsible for gross human rights violations in the Xinjiang region.
“They detail the Chinese party’s brutal detention and systematic repression of Uighurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang,” Pompeo told reporters at a State Department news conference. “We call on the Chinese government to immediately release all those who are arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that have terrorized its own citizens in Xinjiang.”
Pompeo’s comments come at a delicate time in U.S.-Chinese relations amid ongoing negotiations to end a trade war and U.S. concerns about the situation in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protests have turned violent with clashes between police and demonstrators. Notably, his criticism was not accompanied by a warning about possible sanctions for the mass detentions, although U.S. lawmakers are pressing for penalties to be imposed.
“There are very significant human rights abuses,” Pompeo said. “It shows that it’s not random. It is intentional and it is ongoing.”
The leaked classified documents were provided to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which worked with The Associated Press and news organizations around the world to publish the material.
The documents, which include guidelines for operating detention centers and instructions for how to use technology to target people, reveal that the camps in Xinjiang are not for voluntary job training, as Beijing has claimed.
They show the camps are used for forced ideological and behavioral re-education. They also illustrate how Beijing uses a high-tech surveillance system to target people for detention and to predict who will commit a crime.
Voluntary job training is the reason the Chinese government has given for detaining more than a million ethnic minorities, most of them Muslim. But a classified blueprint leaked to the news organizations shows the camps are instead precisely what former detainees have described: forced ideological and behavioral re-education centers run in secret.
The documents lay out the Chinese government’s deliberate strategy to lock up ethnic minorities even before they commit a crime, and to rewire their thoughts and the language they speak.
The papers also show how Beijing is pioneering a new form of social control using data and artificial intelligence. Drawing on data collected by mass surveillance technology, computers issued the names of tens of thousands of people for interrogation or detention in just one week.
Pompeo said the documents should encourage other countries to come forward with their concerns.
U.S. allies were among the first to step up.
“We have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang and the Chinese government’s escalating crackdown, in particular the extra-judicial detention of over a million Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities,” a British Foreign Office spokesperson said. “We want to see an end to the indiscriminate and disproportionate restrictions on the cultural and religious freedoms of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the German China-Cables team that “if indeed hundreds of thousands of Uighurs are being detained in camps, then the international community cannot close their eyes.”
In Brussels, the European Commission said it was calling on China “to uphold its international and international obligations and to respect human rights including when it comes to the rights of persons belonging to minorities especially in Xinjiang but also in Tibet and we will continue to affirm those positions in this context in particular.”
Japan’s foreign ministry said it believed ”freedom, respect for fundamental human rights and the rule of law, which are the universal value in the international community, are guaranteed in China as well.”
Meanwhile, there were indications that China was moving to destroy documentary evidence of abuses.
A man now living in exile said a Uighur cadre he knew had reached out to him in October. The cadre, who manages paperwork at a community-level office in southern Xinjiang, said that recently the government had ordered all papers to be burned and destroyed.
“All the shelves are totally empty,” his friend said. The man declined to be identified out of fear of retribution to him or his family.
The man said papers stored in such offices are forms filled in by government workers monitoring everyone in the community, containing sensitive personal information such as marriage status, residence registration and whether they are detained. Information from the forms are inputted into a database in a separate room in the office, while the forms themselves are stored on shelves.
RAMALLAH, West Bank) — Thousands of Palestinian protesters took part in a “day of rage” across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, with some groups clashing with Israeli forces to protest the U.S. announcement that it no longer believes Israeli settlements violate international law.
Around 2,000 people gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah by midday, where they set ablaze posters of U.S. President Donald Trump as well as Israeli and American flags. Schools, universities and government offices were closed and rallies were being held in other West Bank cities.
“The biased American policy toward Israel, and the American support of the Israeli settlements and the Israeli occupation, leaves us with only one option: To go back to resistance,” Mahmoud Aloul, an official with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, told the crowd in Ramallah.
Demonstrators held signs reading: “Trump to impeachment, (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to jail, the occupation will go and we will remain on our land.”
At Israeli checkpoints near Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron, dozens of protesters threw stones at Israeli forces who responded with tear gas. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Later in the evening, the Israeli military said it identified two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel. One was intercepted by an Iron Dome missile battery. It was the second such attack in as many days by Palestinian militants, and Israeli aircraft retaliated with attacks on several Hamas sites in Gaza. There were no reports of injuries.
The protests came just hours after the death of a Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody following a battle with cancer. Organizers had said the demonstrations — which were planned before his death — would also call for the release of Sami Abu Diak, 35, to allow him to die at his family’s side. Israeli officials denied the request.
Organized by Fatah, Tuesday’s “day of rage” protested the Trump administration’s announcement on Israeli settlements last week. The decision upended four decades of American policy and embraced a hard-line Israeli view at the expense of the Palestinian quest for statehood.
Israeli leaders welcomed the U.S. decision, while the Palestinians and most of the world say the settlements are illegal and undermine hopes for a two-state solution by gobbling up land sought by the Palestinians.
Israel says the fate of the settlements should be determined in negotiations, even as it steadily expands them.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and quickly began settling the newly conquered territory. Today, some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the two areas, which are both claimed by the Palestinians for their state.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced last week that the U.S. was repudiating the 1978 State Department legal opinion.
That opinion had been the basis for more than 40 years of carefully worded U.S. opposition to settlement construction that had varied in its tone and strength, depending on the president’s position. President Ronald Reagan, for instance, said settlements were not inherently illegal, though he called them unhelpful and provocative. Other administrations had called them “illegitimate” and “obstacles to peace.”
Abu Diak, the Palestinian prisoner, died in an Israeli hospital early Tuesday, according to Israel’s prisons service. In a statement, it said he was serving three life sentences for voluntary manslaughter and kidnapping, among other charges.
He was linked to the armed wing of Fatah and was arrested in the early 2000s, during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. He was allegedly involved in the killing of three Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israeli security forces.
The Palestinian Authority had reached out to European countries and the Red Cross to apply pressure on Israel to release him.
Previous deaths of terminally ill Palestinian prisoners have sparked protests and accusations of medical negligence on the part of Israeli authorities.
A koala that had received global attention after dramatic video footage emerged of its rescue from Australia’s bushfires by a woman who wrapped it in her shirt has died after suffering extensive burns.
Video footage released on Nov. 19 showed the koala, later named Ellenborough Lewis, as it was rescued by Toni Doherty who plucked him from a tree in New South Wales. Doherty took the koala to the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie but the hospital were unable to save him and put him to sleep today as a result of his severe burns.
“In Ellenborough Lewis’s case, the burns did get worse, and unfortunately would not have gotten better,” the hospital said in a statement. “The Koala Hospital’s number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made.”
The death comes after Deborah Tabert, chairman of theAustralian Koala Foundation, last week estimated that over 1,000 koalas have perished in the fires ravaging the country in the last two months.
Tabert fears thatthe fires, which have devastated large areas of Australia since Oct. 20, have drastically impacted the already threatened Koala population and their habitat.
Initiallywildlife charities estimated that 350 koalas had been killed in the bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland, but Tabart has argued that the figure is much higher.
“If we combine all of the estimated deaths of koalas in the bushfires, there could be 1000 koalas that have been killed in the last two months,” Tabart toldDaily Mail Australia on Nov. 22.
“The bushfires have had a massive impact on their population,” she added. “Because of deforestation and now the bushfires, there is so little habitat left and trees with eucalyptus take months to grow back.” The Australia Koala Foundation believes that there are 18,000 koalas in New South Wales alone.
Deforestation in Australia has meant that the koalas were already under threat before the bushfires. In May, Tabart argued that koalas may be “functionally extinct” in Australia and called on Scott Morrison, Australia’s Prime Minister to protect koalas and their habitat by enacting the Koala Protection Act (KPA).
“Functionally extinct” is when a species’ reduced population means that they no longer have enough members to produce future generations or play a significant role in the ecosystem.
The argument that koalas are “functionally extinct” is contested in the scientific field. Whilst their population is falling sharply due to deforestation and climate change, and local populations of koalas are heading towards functional extinction, biologist Christine Adams-Hosking expressed her concern over any general claim on their population status. “Australia is a big country, there are koalas all over the place and some of them are doing fine,” Adams-Hosking toldNew Scientist in May this year. “You can’t just make that statement broad-brush.”
The Rescue Collective, a Brisbane-based wildlife charity,said on Nov. 24 that animal rescuers were only just now able to enter fire zones on the East Coast of Australia to witness what they described as “a wildlife apocalypse”.
“As the embers cool and the smoke begins to clear, the harsh reality sets in. This is far worse than we could ever have imagined,” they said in a Facebook post.
Amid the bushfire crisis — which haskilled six people, destroyed around 1.7 million hectares in New South Wales alone,shrouded Sydney in smoke, and killed animals— Morrison has been criticized for his response.
Morrison argued last week that there was no direct link between the severity of the fires burning across Australia at alarming rates and the country’s carbon emissions, which are among thehighest per capita in the world. He toldABC AU during a radio interview on Nov. 21 that there was no “credible scientific evidence” that cutting carbon emissions could reduce the severity of the fires.
“Climate change is a global phenomenon and we’re doing our bit as part of the response to climate change — we’re taking action on climate change,” he said. “But I think to suggest that at just 1.3% of global emissions, that Australia doing something more or less would change the fire outcome this season — I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all.”
Australia only accounts for 1.3% of global emissions when calculating the carbon dioxide released within the country. But Australia also produces another 3.6% in global emissions as a result of coal, oil and gas exports, according toresearch published in July this year by science and policy institute Climate Analytics. The research argues that Australia is in fact contributing to nearly 5% of global emissions.
(BAGHDAD) — Three simultaneous explosions rocked Baghdad late Tuesday, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, Iraqi officials said, in the first apparent coordinated attack since anti-government protests erupted nearly two months ago.
It was not immediately clear who has behind the bombings, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. Iraq declared victory over the extremists nearly two years ago, but they still maintain a presence in parts of the country and carry out sporadic attacks.
Security officials said at least three people were killed and five wounded in an explosion in the southwestern Baiyaa neighborhood. Two were killed and four were wounded in northeastern Shaab City, and four were wounded in Baladiyat, southeast of Baghdad.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media, said two bomb-laden motorcycles and a roadside bomb were used in the attacks.
The bombings took place far from Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of weeks of anti-government protests that have posed the biggest security challenge to Iraq since the defeat of IS.
Security forces killed three protesters and wounded at least 80 on Tuesday as demonstrations raged in Baghdad and across mostly Shiite southern Iraq. The protesters accuse the government of being hopelessly corrupt and complain of poor public services and high unemployment.
Security and hospital officials said two protesters in Baghdad were killed when security forces fired live ammunition and rubber bullets. In southern Iraq, one protester was killed when security forces fired live rounds after a full day of sit-ins and road closures.
Security and hospital officials confirmed the toll on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Protesters, most of them balaclava-clad Iraqi youth, carried one of the slain demonstrators, his face covered in blood, away from the scene of the fighting to a tuk tuk — a three-wheeled motorcycle transport — for medical help.
Another protester died near the banks of the Tigris River, close to Ahrar bridge. Protesters are occupying part of three key bridges — Jumhuriya, Ahrar and Sinak — in a standoff with security forces.
Over 350 people have been killed and thousands have been wounded since Oct. 1. The demonstrations are the largest grassroots protest movement in Iraq’s modern history.
(LONDON) — Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn sought Tuesday to defuse harsh criticism about anti-Semitism leveled at the party by Britain’s chief rabbi.
Corbyn addressed Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’ remarks in The Times newspaper while taking questions at a campaign event just over two weeks before Britain’s Dec. 12 election.
He denied Mirvis’ claim that Labour and its leader have been deeply tarnished by pervasive anti-Semitic attitudes.
The influential rabbi’s suggestion that Corbyn was unfit for high office represented a break from his traditional position of not commenting on party politics. He said Britain’s Jews are “gripped by anxiety” about Corbyn’s possible election.
Corbyn said that if he becomes prime minister, he wants to lead a government that has an “open door” to all faith leaders.
He said he would invite Mirvis and other religious leaders “to come talk to us about what their concerns are” and said no community would feel at risk because of their faith.
The rabbi’s damaging column was published on the day Labour was launching its “race and faith” platform as part of its campaign to win voters with its views on tolerance and equality.
The left-wing party pledged in its platform to teach children about the legacy of the British empire, including slavery and colonialism, and also says it will treat attacks on places of worship as a specific aggravated offense.
Outside the launch event, protesters put up anti-Labour posters including one that read, “a vote for Labour is a vote for racism.”
In his speech, Corbyn said anti-Semitism was “vile and wrong” and insisted that Labour has a speedy, effective way of dealing with complaints.
But he has been repeatedly criticized for tolerating anti-Jewish comments from party members. The ongoing questions about anti-Semitism have damaged traditionally strong ties between Britain’s Jews and the Labour Party.
Louise Ellman, a former Labour legislator who quit the party over the issue, said the chief rabbi’s column reflects “widespread concern and anxiety” across the mainstream Jewish community.
“The reason I have left the Labour Party is because I cannot ask people to vote for Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister while we have a Labour Party that is institutionally anti-Semitic,” she told BBC.
The situation, she added, was “unprecedented.”
Mirvis, who hasn’t intervened in politics before, said the Jewish community has watched with “incredulity” as Labour supporters have hounded Labour legislators who have challenged anti-Jewish racism. Some have been driven out of the party.
He said “the very soul of our nation is at stake,” pointing out that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is investigating whether the party’s discrimination against Jews is now institutionalized.
Corbyn, 70, has long been a champion of Palestinian rights and critical of the Israeli government. He has at times appeared to be sympathetic to the grievances of groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said in a tweet that the chief rabbi’s comments should make clear to the country that many British Jews feel uneasy.
He said Mirvis’s statement “ought to alert us to the deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews.”
Earlier this month, the influential Jewish Chronicle newspaper had warned about the dangers of Corbyn becoming prime minister.
The Muslim Council of Britain praised the rabbi for speaking out and said it agreed with his conclusion that too many politicians have been silent while racism has spread.
The council said Muslims face hostility, particularly within the governing party led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“This an issue that is particularly acute in the Conservative Party, who have approached Islamophobia with denial, dismissal and deceit,” the group said.
All 650 seats in the House of Commons will be decided in the election, which was called by Johnson with the goal of getting a new Parliament that would back his Brexit policy.
On Nov. 13, Facebook announced with great fanfare that it was taking down substantially more posts containing hate speech from its platform than ever before.
Facebook removed more than seven million instances of hate speech in the third quarter of 2019, the company claimed, an increase of 59% against the previous quarter. More and more of that hate speech (80%) is now being detected not by humans, they added, but automatically, by artificial intelligence.
The new statistics, however, conceal a structural problem Facebook is yet to overcome: not all hate speech is treated equally.
Emily Barone and Lon Tweeten/TIMEOf all the hate speech acted on by Facebook, 80% is now flagged first by algorithms
The algorithms Facebook currently uses to remove hate speech only work in certain languages. That means it has become easier for Facebook to contain the spread of racial or religious hatred online in the primarily developed countries and communities where global languages like English, Spanish and Mandarin dominate.
But in the rest of the world, it’s as difficult as ever.
Facebook tells TIME it has functional hate speech detection algorithms (or “classifiers,” as it calls them internally) in more than 40 languages worldwide. In the rest of the world’s languages, Facebook relies on its own users and human moderators to police hate speech.
Unlike the algorithms that Facebook says now automatically detect 80% of hateful posts without needing a user to have reported them first, these human moderators do not regularly scan the site for hate speech themselves. Instead, their job is to decide whether posts that users have already reported should be removed.
Languages spoken by minorities are the hardest-hit by this disparity. It means that racial slurs, incitements to violence and targeted abuse can spread faster in the developing world than they do at present in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.
India, the second-most populous country in the world with more than 1.2 billion people and nearly 800 languages, offers an insight into this problem.
Facebook declined to share a full list of languages in which it has working hate speech detection algorithms. But the company tells TIME that out of the 22 official languages of India, only four — Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Tamil — are covered by Facebook’s algorithms. Some 25% of India’s population do not speak at least one of those four languages or English, and about 38% don’t speak one as their first language, according to a TIME analysis of the 2011 Indian census.
Emily Barone and Lon Tweeten/TIMEFacebook has algorithms to detect hate speech in only four of India’s 22 official (or “scheduled”) languages.
In the state of Assam, in northeastern India, this gap in Facebook’s systems has allowed for violent extremism to flourish — unchecked by regulators and accelerated by the power Facebook gives anybody to share text, images and video widely.
In Assam, the global advocacy group Avaaz has identified an ongoing campaign of hate by the Assamese-speaking, largely Hindu, majority against the Bengali-speaking, largely Muslim, minority. In a report published in October, Avaaz detailed Facebook posts calling Bengali Muslims “parasites,” “rats” and “rapists,” and calling for Hindu girls to be poisoned to stop Muslims from raping them. The posts were viewed at least 5.4 million times. The U.N. has called the situation there a “potential humanitarian crisis.”
Facebook confirmed to TIME that it does not have an algorithm for detecting hate speech in Assamese, the main language spoken in Assam. Instead of automatically detecting hate speech in Assamese, Facebook employs an unspecified number of human moderators around the clock who speak the language. But those moderators, for the most part, only respond to posts flagged by users.
Campaigners say Facebook’s reliance on user reports of hate speech in languages where it does not have working algorithms puts too much of a burden on these victims of hate speech, who are often not highly educated and already from marginalized communities. “In the Assamese context, the minorities most directly targeted by hate speech on Facebook often lack online access or the understanding of how to navigate Facebook’s flagging tools. No one else is reporting it for them either,” the Avaaz report says. “This leaves Facebook with a huge blindspot,” Alaphia Zoyab, a senior campaigner at Avaaz, tells TIME.
The solution, Zoyab says, isn’t less human involvement, it’s more: more Facebook employees doing proactive searches for hate speech, and a concerted effort to build a dataset of Assamese hate speech. “Unless Facebook chooses to become smarter about understanding the societies in which it operates, and ensures it puts human beings on the case to proactively ‘sweep’ the platform for violent content, in some of these smaller languages we’re going to continue in this digital dystopia of dangerous hate,” she tells TIME.
Technical issues
Facebook says the reason it can’t automatically detect hate speech in Assamese — and other small languages — is because it doesn’t have a large enough dataset to train the artificial intelligence program that would do so.
In a process called machine learning, Facebook trains its computers to grade posts on a spectrum of hatefulness by giving them tens or hundreds of thousands of examples of hate speech. In English, which has 1.5 billion speakers, that’s easy enough. But in smaller languages like Assamese, which has only 23.6 million speakers according to the 2011 Indian census, that becomes harder. Add the fact that not many hateful posts in Assamese are flagged as hate speech in the first place, and it becomes very difficult to train a program to detect hatred in Assamese.
But campaigners say this doesn’t make the current situation in Assam inevitable. When hate speech against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar spread virulently via Facebook in Burmese (a language spoken by some 42 million people) Facebook was slow to act because it had no hate-speech detection algorithm in Burmese, and few Burmese-speaking moderators. But since the Rohingya genocide, Facebook has built a hate-speech classifier in Burmese by pouring resources toward the project. It paid to hire 100 Burmese-speaking content moderators, who manually built up a dataset of Burmese hate speech that was used to train an algorithm.
Facebook declined to say how many Assamese-speaking moderators it employs, after multiple requests from TIME. In a statement, Facebook said: “We don’t break down the number of content reviewers by language, in large part because the number alone isn’t representative of the people working on any given language or issue and the number changes based on staffing needs. We base our staffing on a number of different factors, including the geopolitical situation on the ground and the volume of content posted in a specific language.”
Facebook tells TIME that it has a list of countries in which it has prioritized its work preventing what it calls “offline harms,” which it defines as real-world physical violence. Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, Libya, Ethiopia, Syria, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela are on that list, a spokesperson said.
The company also revealed to TIME some more of the 40-plus languages in which it has working hate speech detection algorithms. They include Mandarin and Arabic, and the two official languages of Sri Lanka: Sinhalese and Tamil. The company is currently building a hate speech classifier in Punjabi — another official Indian language that has more than 125 million speakers around the world.
Facebook has also declined to disclose the success rate of individual language algorithms. So, while globally Facebook’s algorithms now detect 80% of hate speech before it’s reported by a user, it is impossible to tell whether this is an average that masks lower success rates in some languages compared to others.
Two Facebook officials — one engineer who works on hate speech algorithms, and one member of Facebook’s “strategic response team” — told TIME that Facebook was building classifiers in several new languages, but did not want to set them loose on the site until they were more accurate, in order to avoid taking down posts that aren’t hateful.
But even when their algorithms flag hate speech content, Facebook says, human moderators always make the final decision on whether to remove it. Facebook says its moderators typically respond to reports within 24 hours. During that time, posts flagged as hateful remain online.
In “more than 50” languages, Facebook says, it has moderators working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But there is “significant overlap” between those 50-plus languages and the 40-plus languages in which an algorithm is currently active, Facebook says. In still more languages, Facebook employs part-time moderators.
Because Facebook does not break down the number of content moderators by language, it is also hard to tell if there are also discrepancies between languages when it comes to how quickly and efficiently hateful posts are removed. According to Avaaz, minority languages are overlooked when it comes to the speed of moderation, too. When Avaaz reported 213 of the “clearest examples” of hateful posts in Assamese to Facebook, moderators eventually removed 96. Some were taken down within 24 hours; others took up to three months. The other 117 examples of “brazen hate speech” remain on the site, according to Zoyab.
Other observers question the validity of building an automated system that, they fear, will eventually outsource to machines the decisions on what kind of speech is acceptable. “Free speech implications should be extremely worrisome to everybody, since we do not know what Facebook is leaving up and taking down,” says Susan Benesch, the executive director of the Dangerous Speech Project, a non-profit that studies how public speech can cause real-world violence. “They are taking down millions of pieces of content every day, and you do not know where they are drawing the line.”
“Preventing it from being posted in the first place,” Benesch says, “would be much, much more effective.”
— Additional reporting by Emily Barone and Lon Tweeten/New York
Correction, Nov. 27
The original version of this story misstated how long it took Facebook to remove 96 of the 213 posts reported as hate speech by Avaaz. Some, but not all, were removed within 24 hours. Others took up to three months.
(BENI, Congo) — Ebola responders are on lockdown in the eastern Congo city of Beni after angry residents attacked a United Nations base to protest repeated rebel assaults, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. At least four protesters were killed, a local official said.
Every day that health workers don’t have full access to Ebola-affected areas is a “tragedy” that prolongs the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.
Almost 50 “non-critical” staffers with the U.N. health agency were evacuated to the city of Goma while 71 remain, spokesman Christian Lindmeier said. He said the violence is not directed at WHO or the Ebola response at large.
Instead, Beni residents are outraged that rebels continue to carry out deadly attacks despite the presence of U.N. peacekeepers and Congolese forces. Some demand that the U.N. mission act or leave.
The bodies of four young protesters were found near the U.N. base after Monday’s attack, Kumbu Ngoma with Beni’s military court told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Investigations continued into the cause of their deaths. Six Congolese soldiers were wounded by gunfire near the base, Ngoma added.
Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi after an emergency meeting Monday decided to allow joint operations between Congolese and U.N. forces in Beni following the protests that also burned the town hall.
Congo’s military early this month declared a new offensive against Allied Democratic Forces rebels who have killed hundreds of civilians and security forces over the past few years in the mineral-rich northeast.
After the U.N. mission in recent days was accused of inaction, it said it could not carry out operations unilaterally in a region where Congo’s military is already active, and that it cannot participate in Congolese military operations without being invited.
Any unrest in the region where numerous rebel groups are active hurts crucial efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak. The number of reported cases has been dropping, with zero cases recorded on several days this month.
Congo’s president, heartened by the trend, said earlier this month he hoped that the outbreak could be ended “completely by the end of the year.” However, WHO says 42 days without new Ebola cases must pass since the last possible exposure to a confirmed case for an outbreak to be declared over.
More than 3,100 Ebola cases have been confirmed since this outbreak was declared in August 2018, including more than 2,100 deaths.
WHO has called the trend in the declining number of cases encouraging but said the recent days of protests in Beni and surrounding areas are of “grave concern.”
___
Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
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AUSTRALIA experienced its hottest summer last year, and now shock charts show yet another one is on the way bringing scorching temperatures and danger to life. Here are the latest forecasts, maps and charts.
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SCIENTISTS have discovered a hitherto fact about Ancient Rome - that it was in fact a "melting pot" of different cultures and ethnicities in what has proved to be an unprecedented archaeological DNA excavation study.
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Indian Post Office Result 2019 – In this home page applicants can get all results depends on the Indian Post Office Result 2019 Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Himachal Prades, Rajasthan, and Delhi. We have dedicated this page to update all the latest results regarding the Indian Post Office. The result will be declared online and the result is all set to release soon. Registered candidates can download their result from this page directly by visiting this page. Because here we will update the latest Indian Post Office Online Result 2019 link. It will work once the India Post Office GDS Result has been announced officially. The India Post GDS Result 2019 will generate on the basis of marks obtained by the Candidates in the Qualifying Exam.
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Organization Name
India Post, Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India
Assam GDS Result 2019 – @ appost.in |Check Assam GDS Result Merit list 2019 here: Assam Postal Circle is going to announce the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). Candidates who have applied for the Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) post can check and download your result from the below link. Here on this page, we will be updating the latest result link and it will activate at the time of result announcement. Assam Circle GDS Result will be published in the form of a merit list of the candidates who submitted their applications successfully.
Bihar GDS Result 2019 – @ appost.in |Check Bihar GDS Result Merit list 2019 here: The Bihar Postal Circle is going to announce the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). Candidates who have applied for the GDS post can check the Bihar GDS Result 2019 Expected Date from this page. Also, download your Bihar GDS Result Pdf from the below link. Here on this page, we will be updating the latest result link and it will activate at the time of result announcement. Bihar GDS 1063 Result will be published in the form of a merit list of the candidates who submitted their applications successfully.
Gujarat GDS Result 2019 – @ appost.in |Check India Post GDS Gujarat Result 2019 here: The Gujarat Postal Circle is going to announce the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). Candidates who have applied for the GDS post are eagerly waiting to when Gujarat GDS Result will be declared. Here on this page, we will be updating the latest Gujarat GDS Result Pdf link and it will activate at the time of result announcement. Gujarat Post GDS Result will be published in the form of a merit list of the candidates who submitted their applications successfully.
AP Postal Circle GDS Result 2019 – @ appost.in |Check Andhra Pradesh Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List here: The Andhra Pradesh Postal Circle is going to announce the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). Candidates who have applied for the GDS post are eagerly waiting to when AP Postal Circle Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List will be declared. Here on this page, we will be updating the latest AP Postal GDS Results Pdf link and it will activate at the time of result announcement. AP Postal Circle GDS Result will be published in the form of a merit list of the candidates who submitted their applications successfully.
Chhattisgarh GDS Result 2019 – @ appost.in |Check Chhattisgarh Postal GDS Merit list here: The Chhattisgarh Postal Circle is going to announce the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). Candidates who have applied for the GDS post are eagerly waiting to when Chhattisgarh Post Office GDS Result will be declared. Here on this page, we will be updating the latest Chhattisgarh Postal GDS Merit list Pdf link and it will activate at the time of result announcement. Chhattisgarh GDS Results will be published in the form of a merit list of the candidates who submitted their applications successfully.
Telangana GDS Result 2019 – @ appost.in |Check Telangana Gramin Dak Sevak Merit list: The Telangana Postal Circle is going to announce the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). Candidates who have applied for the GDS post are eagerly waiting to when Telangana Postal Circle GDS Result will be declared. Here on this page, we will be updating the latest TS Gramin Dak Sevak Merit list Pdf link and it will activate at the time of result announcement. TS Postal GDS Results will be published in the form of a merit list of the candidates who submitted their applications successfully.
Jharkhand Postal Circle GDS Result 2019 – Jharkhand Postal Circle has announced the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) on 05th September 2019. Candidates those who have applied for the post can check and download your result from the below link. Here we have given a quick link to access your result easily. Apart from these candidates can get the complete details from the official website i.e, www.indiapost.gov.in. On this page, anyone can check the Postman & Mail Guard Result Result 2019 by using the direct link.
Jharkhand Postal Circle GDS Result 2019
Organization Name
India Post, Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India
Jharkhand Postal Circle GDS Result 2019 – Click Here
HP Postal Circle GDS Result 2019 – Himachal Pradesh Postal Circle has announced the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) on 05th September 2019. Candidates those who have applied for the post can check and download your result from the below link. Here we have given a quick link to access your result easily. Apart from these candidates can get the complete details from the official website i.e, www.indiapost.gov.in. In this page, anyone can check the Postman & Mail Guard Result Result 2019 by using the direct link.
HP Postal Circle GDS Result 2019
Organization Name
India Post, Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India
Kerala Postal Circle Postman & Mail Guard Result 2019 – Kerala Postal Circle has announced the result for the post of Postman & Mail Guard. Candidates those who have applied for the post can check and download your result from the below link. Here we have given a quick link to access your result easily. Apart from these candidates can get the complete details from the official website i.e, www.indiapost.gov.in. In this page, anyone can check the Postman & Mail Guard Result Result 2019 by using the direct link.
Kerala Postal Circle Postman & Mail Guard Result 2019
Organization Name
India Post, Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India
Kerala Postal Circle Postman & Mail Guard Result 2019 – Click Here
Rajasthan Postal Circle GDS Result 2019 – Rajasthan Postal Circle has announced the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) on 05th August 2019. Candidates those who have applied for the post can check and download your result from the below link. Here we have given a quick link to access your result easily. Apart from these candidates can get the complete details from the official website i.e, www.indiapost.gov.in. In this page, anyone can check the GDS Result 2019 by using the direct link.
Rajasthan Postal Circle GDS Result 2019
Organization Name
India Post, Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India
Rajasthan Postal Circle GDS Result 2019 – Click Here
Delhi Gramin Dak Sevak Merit list Pdf 2019 – GDS Result for Delhi GDS Dak Sevak has announced on 05th September 2019. GDS Result has prepared and published only on the basis of marks secured by the candidates in the 10th standard (SSC). Delhi GDS Recruitment 2019 has invited 174 vacancies for Delhi Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). The GDS Post will select according to the Merit List. The Selection Test for the Merit list will announce it soon. Applicants will receive an update regarding the selection list date. Also, Applicants can get the GDS Result date, GDS Selection test date and other latest information from this page.
Delhi GDS Dak Sevak Result
Organization Name
India Post, Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India
The official department will announce the India Post GDS Result 2019 Date and Delhi Post GDS Merit List 2019 soon on the official portal. Candidates, please stay connects with us for the latest updates related to the Delhi Post GDS Merit List 2019. Applicants who have applied for this Recruitment can check Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List 2019 soon from the official website. Also, Applicants can get the zone wise Delhi GDS Result 2019. The result pdf is going to indicate the following information about the result.
Names of the selected candidate (not in merit order)
Registration no./ Application No.
Post name
Branch Office (BO)
Postal circle Division name
Head Office (HO)
Sub Office name (SO)
Marks percentage of the selected candidates
Category
Delhi GDS candidates waiting for the publication of results can check the same by following the given procedure once it will be made available online. Candidates can visit the official page or our site on a regular basis for the latest updates. According to the updates, the Indian Post declares the Delhi GDS Result. The department also releases Delhi Postal Circle GDS Merit List 2019 along with the cut off marks. Delhi Postal Circle department soon confirm Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS), Merit List, & Cut off Marks released Date. The board will be selected qualified candidates in the Delhi Postal Circle GDS Cut off 2019 Category Wise. The Gramin Dak Sevak Cut off Marks release along with GDS Result 2019. We have given the link of the GDS Result 2019 and India Post Office GDS Result from the above table.
Delhi Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List 2019
In the upcoming time, the Delhi Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List 2019 will be released, Participators can get through our site. In the Delhi Gramin Dak Sevak Jobs, Applicants will be selected on the basis of Delhi Postal Circle GDS Result. Here, We will provide you the Delhi Post Office GDS Merit List 2019 link as per the official announcement for your convenience. Applicants will get a higher priority in the Interview, based on the Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List 2019.
Steps to check Gramin Dak Sevak Merit list Pdf
First of all, Candidates need to visit the official site i.e, www.indiapost.gov.in
Then click on the link of the Delhi Postal GDS Result.
Fill complete the required details in the form.
Then click on the submit button.
At last, save the soft copy on your desktop and also take the hard copy of the result.
Direct link to download Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List 2019
TANGEDCO Syllabus 2019: Dear Candidates !! Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has officially issued the recruitment notification for the TANGEDCO Gangman Vacancies. About, 5000 TANGEDCO Gangman posts are going to be filled through this particular recruitment process. Here, the interested candidates can check the Exam Pattern and Syllabus of TANGEDCO Gangman posts. The TANGEDCO Applicants must have a clear plan with TANGEDCO Gangman Syllabus 2019 to crack the TANGEDCO Exam 2019. So, here we provide TANGEDCO Syllabus for the interested candidates to boost the preparation.
To know further details about the TANGEDCO Gangman syllabus 2019, all the applicants can check the below information. To enhance the preparation levels, candidates have to check the detailed information regarding the TNEB TANGEDCO Syllabus 2019. From here, applicants can also get more stuff on TANGEDCO Gangman Syllabus 2019 in the below sections. To get an excellent score in the Gangman (Trainee) exam, you need to practice the TNEB TANGEDCO Gangman Exam Pattern 2019. For those candidates, Here we provided the quick link to download the TANGEDCO Gangman Syllabus 2019 PDF.
TANGEDCO Gangman Exam Syllabus 2019 – Overview
Description
Details
Name of the Organization
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB)-Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO)
In this section, we had given complete and accurate information on TANGEDCO Exam Pattern 2019 for the Gangman (Trainee) Vacancies. Before downloading TANGEDCO Gangman Syllabus 2019, every applied candidate must and should have to get the idea on this Exam Pattern. TANGEDCO Gangman Exam Pattern includes the name of the subject, number of questions, number of marks, and others. Now, all the candidates should go through the TANGEDCO Gangman Exam Pattern.
TANGEDCO Gangman Exam Pattern 2019
Name of the Subject
Number of Questions
Number of Marks
Part I
40
40
Part II
60
60
Total
100
100 Marks
Time Duration: 2 Hours
Type of Examination: Objective Type Question Paper
NOTE:
Marks will not be deducted for the questions left unanswered.
To use blue or black ink Ball Point Pen only.
Multiple shading will be considered as the wrong answer.
The answer sheet will be invalidated if shaded in Pencil.
The answer sheet will be invalidated if the box for Booklet Series is not shaded and could not be identified even by physical verification of the answer sheet.
Selection Procedures:
Here, only the most desirable candidates are going to hold a job in the Tamilnadu Electricity Board. To hold a job as Gangman post aspirants must qualify in all the selection process. They are,
Written exam
Physical Measurement Test (PMT)
Document Verification
Viva-Voice
Download TANGEDCO Gangman Syllabus 2019-20 PDF
Aspirants who have applied for Gangman post, they need to check the TNEB TANGEDCO Gangman Syllabus 2019. So for the better preparation of this exam, all the aspirants must take the TNEB TANGEDCO Gangman Syllabus 2019 along with the TNEB TANGEDCO Previous Year Question Paper. So, aspirants must know TNEB Syllabus to prepare well for the examination.
PART – I
TANGEDCO Syllabus of Engineering Mathematics
Determinants and Matrices
Solving system of equations
The rank of the Matrix
Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
Reduction of quadratic form to canonical form
Calculus and Differential Equations
Partial derivatives
Jacobians
Taylor's expansion
Maxima and Minima
Linear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients
Simultaneous first order linear equations with constant coefficients
Formation of the partial differential equation (PDE)
The solution of first-order PDE
The solution of linear higher order PDE with constant coefficients
Vector Calculus
Double and triple integrations and their applications
Gradient, Divergence, Curl and Laplacian
Green's Gauss divergence and Stroke's theorem.
Functions of Complex Variables and Complex Integration
Analytic functions
Conformal Mapping
Bilinear transformation
Cauchy's integral theorem and integral formula
Taylor and Laurent Series
Singularities
Residues
Residue theorem and its applications
Transforms
Laplace Transform
Inverse transforms
Application to solution of linear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients
Fourier integral theorem
Fourier transform pair
Sine and Cosine transforms
Inverse Z transform
The solution of difference equations using Z transform.
Numerical Methods
The solution of the linear system by direct and iterative methods
We believe that lots of applicants have applied for the TANGEDCO Assistant Engineer (Electrical, Civil) Post. And, those candidates are now waiting for the TANGEDCO Syllabus and Exam Pattern 2019 to decide how to prepare for the exam. So, we have gathered the in-depth syllabus and test pattern here. In the given Syllabus, you can find the topics for every section that comes for the written examination. Check the complete syllabus here and read all those topics to attend the exam in a good manner and score well. Read the entire topics and prepare well for the exam to work with Government.
Download TANGEDCO Exam Syllabus 2019 Pdf
Candidates who are searching for Jobs in Tamil Nadu, it is a great opportunity for the aspirants to apply for the Assistant Engineer Posts for Electrical, Electronics/Instrumentation, CS/IT and Civil Engineering. Applicants can apply online and get here the complete details of the TNEB Syllabus 2019 PDF. Here we provide every piece of information for the candidates to prepare well for their examination. So stay notified with our page to get every detail regarding Syllabus and Exam Pattern.
TANGEDCO Syllabus for Assistant Engineer 2019 Details
Name of the Organisation
Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO)
EPFO Results 2019 Declared – EPFO Assistant Prelims Result, Cut Off Marks, Merit List @ epfindia.gov.in – Hello Guys!!! Here we have good news for you Because Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is going to announce the EPFO Assistant Prelims Results. Also as per the announcement, EPFO SSA Phase I Marks 2019 declared on 05th November 2019. The EPFO Organization has conducted the EPFO Social Security Assistant (SSA) Prelims Examination on 31st August 2019 & 1st September 2019. Applicants can check and download EPFO Assistant Results from the official website @ epfindia.gov.in.
New Update: Employees' Provident Fund Organisationhas released the EPFO SSA Phase I Marks 2019 on 05th November 2019.
EPFO Social Security Assistant Phase I Marks 2019OUT– Employee Provident Fund Organization India (EPFO) has Recently Uploaded Phase I Marks for the Post of Social Security Assistant SSA Recruitment 2019 on 05th November 2019. Candidates who have appeared for the prelims examination can check the result on the official website once the result has been declared. EPFO Assistant Prelims Result Link is provided below. So all candidates can check EPFO Assistant 2019 Prelims (Phase-I) result & Marks by clicking on the link mentioned below.
EPFO Social Security Assistant Phase I Marks 2019 – Click Here EPFO Social Security Assistant Result 2019 – Click Here
EPFO Assistant Pre Exam Final Result 2019 – EPFO Assistant Recruitment Pre Exam Final Result 2019 has been released by EPFO. Candidates who have appeared for the prelims examination can check the result on the official website of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). EPFO Assistant Prelims Result Link is provided below. So all candidates can check the EPFO Assistant 2019 Pre Exam Result result by clicking on the link mentioned below.
EPFO Assistant Pre Exam Final Result 2019 – Click Here EPFO Assistant Phase-I Result 2019 – Click Here
All the candidates those who have appeared for the EPFO Assistant Prelims Exam can get the latest updates and the Result details from the above table. Here we have mentioned all the details like EPFO Assistant Results Date, Exam date, and others. Also, applicants can keep track of this page to get your results on time. Here we will be updating the latest EPFO Assistant Prelims Results link at the time of the official announcement. We will help you out with the EPFO Exam Results 2019.
So all the applicants those who have appeared for the EPFO Assistant Prelims Exam can start preparing for the Mains Examination. Because the Result will be published within two days. So Candidates can get the EPFO Previous Years Papers Pdf from this link to prepare the Mains Examination.
Qualifying Marks: – Qualifying Marks in Phase-I (Preliminary Exam.) and Phase – II (Main Exam) will be decided as per the discretion of EPFO.
EPFO Results 2019 Cut off
Applicants should concentrate on the EPFO Result 2019 Cut off Marks to attain the Merit List. So for these reasons, everyone can analyze the Syllabus for the Mains Examination. Here all the applicants can check EPFO Syllabus 2019 Pdf to get more knowledge about the Question Pattern. By referring to the Syllabus, applicants can understand the Question Pattern and giving more importance to some related topics. The EPFO Cut off marks and Merit list depends on some factors. Check Phase I Score Card Merit List & Cut Off details here.
EPFO Assistant Prelims Expected Cut off 2019
Categories
Expected Cut off
General
78-85
EWS
73-77
OBC
70-75
SC
68-70
ST
65-69
How to check EPFO Assistant Prelims Results 2019?
Visit the official website of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) i.e, epfindia.gov.in
On the home page, click on "Miscellaneous Tab"
In Recruitments Tab, find all the latest updates of the EPFO.
Search for the link related to EPFO Assistant Result 2019.
Enter the details of the registration number, password, and date of birth of the participant and click on the submit button.
Then, EPFO Assistant Exam Result 2019 of the candidate appears on the screen.
SSC Admit Card 2019: Staff Selection Commission Hall Ticket 2019 will be released soon. Those aspirants who have applied for various posts are eagerly waiting to download SSC Hall Ticket 2019. As it is important for an individual to carry the SSC Exam Hall Ticket 2019 while attending the examination. However, candidates can get important information like the examination date, timings which help candidates to reach an examination on time. However, aspirants can make use of this page to download SSC Exam Admit Card 2019 when released by the officials at ssc.nic.in
The Central Public Organization has announced the admit card for the post of Sub Inspectors and Assistant Sub Inspectors on 26th November 2019. Moreover, the direct link to download the admit card is now available at the bottom of the webpage. Therefore, Aspirants who are going to take down the examination can download the SSC Admit Card from here.
The Junior Hindi Translator and Hindi Pradhyapak Exam are going to be held on 26th November 2019. Hence, the commission has issued the admit card on 16th November 2019. Therefore, Exam appearing aspirants can download the SSC Tier 1 Admit Card from the below table. Make use of the direct link to get the hall ticket.
SSC Hindi Translator Admit Card 2019 – Download Here
SSC Stenographer Admit Card 2019
Staff Selection Commission has yet to release the admit card for the post of 429 Grade C Stenographers. Thus, the admit card will be available from the Last Week of August 2019. The SSC Stenographer Grade C exam date has been declared tentatively in September 2019.
SSC Stenographer Admit Card 2019 (CR Region) – Download Here
SSC Stenographer Admit Card 2019 (Other Region) – Download Here
SSC Admit Card 2019 Download
Staff Selection Commission Board has announced the Admit Card for Stenographer Skill Test 2019. The aspirants who cleared the Written Examination of SSC Stenographer 2019 can download the hall ticket below. Also, check out the Official Website if you find any error while downloading the SSC call letter 2019.
SSC JE Admit Card for Document verification is available now. The Candidates those who qualified in the Tier II Examination can download the SSC JE call letter for the Document Verification 2019. However, click on the link given below for the SSC JE call letter for All Reasons 2019.
SSC CHSL Admit Card for Tier-II Recruitment Exam 2019 is available now. However, the candidates who applied for the SSC CHSL Tier-II Exam 2019 can download the hall ticket from the link given below.
SSC CGL Admit Card 2019: for Tier III Examination is available now. The Candidates who cleared the SSC CGL Tier-II Examination can download the Tier III hall ticket 2019. However, we provide you a direct link in the table below to download SSC CGL Tier III Admit Card 2019.
BTEUP Scrutiny Result 2019 Declared on 20th October 2019 @ bteup.ac.in | UP Diploma Polytechnic 2nd, 4th, 6th Semester Results. Welcome to our BTEUP Result page. Here we help you find all the BTEUP Scrutiny Result Semester Wise. The Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh has announced the UP Polytechnic Scrutiny Result. Hence, candidates who are waiting for the BTEUP Result 2019 can check from the direct link given below. BTEUP Revaluation Result for polytechnic diploma odd/even semester, annual and Back Paper exams will be released soon.. However, all the best and check the Result by clicking the link below.
Latest Update on 05th November 2019: BTEUP has Declared Re-evaluation Exam Result On Its Official Website Candidates can check the Result From the Link Given Below……Stay Connected with us for the latest Updated Results…
BTEUP Polytechnic/Diploma Revaluation Even Semester Result 2019 – Applicants who have applied for the BTEUP Scrutiny Revaluation can check your result from the below link. Here we have updated the latest result link. And the result link has activated now. Board of Technical Education has released the diploma/polytechnic scrutiny results for odd semesters on 20th October 2019. Hence the Students can keep checking the BTEUP official website bteup.ac.in to check the BTEUP Revaluation Result 2019.
BTEUP Scrutiny Revaluation Result 2019
Organization Name
Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh (BTEUP)
BTEUP Even Semester Exam Result 2019 – Click Here Download BTEUP 2nd, 4th, 6th Sem Result 2019 – Click Here
BTEUP Result
BTEUP Scrutiny Result for Polytechnic Exam is Released Today. UPBTE Finally released the Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Final Result by official website – www.bteup.in. This is a piece of very good news for the students who are looking for the BTEUP Scrutiny Result and UPBTE Polytechnic Diploma Merit List. The candidates those who are looking for the BTEUP Scrutiny Result can download directly from Recruitment.guru.
UPBTE Polytechnic Result 2019
Below we have enclosed the UPBTE Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Result. Students are waiting for so, many days but Uttar Pradesh Board of Technical Education has released the BTEUP Scrutiny Result now. So, People who are waiting for the BTEUP Scrutiny Result can download the BTEUP Scrutiny form 2019 directly from here. Also on this page applicants can get the BTEUP Security fees.
bteup.ac.in 2019 Result
UP Board of Technical Education is responsible for organizing polytechnic/diploma examinations and releasing results. BTEUP had conducted Polytechnic annual exams for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in June month. Written exams were conducted for all branches including Civil, Mechanical, IT, Electronics, Electrical, Computer science, etc. The board will release the scorecard and BTEUP Result 2018 -19 for these exams. Candidates can check them UP BET Result 2019 after the declaration. They will be available either on the BTEUP recruitment.guru website or in the college.
BTEUP Scrutiny Result
Candidates who were not able to clear some / all papers had applied for scrutiny. Now UPBTE is in the process of preparing UPBTE Scrutiny Exam Result 2019. The scrutiny exam result is declared now. Students who had applied can check them from below given links below. We will update the other information regarding UPBTE Polytechnic Results here.
UP BTE Revaluation Result – Diploma Revaluation Result 2019
UPBTE Re-evaluation / Scrutiny/ Re-checking Result for all semesters 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th will be available provided here. Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh, last year, had announced results for the UPBTE Regular Annual Results for All Semesters. Now, the students who got fewer marks than expected, are applied for UPBTE Scrutiny. Candidates who applied are eagerly looking for the Polytechnic Semester Exam Result. BTEUP Exam Result 2019 will go to be released in Month 2019. The Scrutiny Result 2019 has released on the official website.
Download UPBTE Scrutiny Result
Students can check their UPBTE Scrutiny result either on the official website or in the College. Mark Sheets will be available after the change in marks & overall Performance. There is always a chance for an increase in marks through Scrutiny. Students have to contact their Exam Cell for Scrutiny Result.
Download BTEUP Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Result
Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh Polytechnic Diploma Scrutiny Result 2019 BTEUP Scrutiny Result 2019 Check Scrutiny Process Filling of Scrutiny Form 2019 UP Polytechnic Annual Exam Copy Re-Check result.
Download BTEUP Scrutiny Merit List 2019
Below we have enclosed the BTEUP Results & Merit List for all zones. People can check their marks from the below links from Diploma Revaluation Result 2019.
Now you can check the BTEUP Scrutiny Final Result. BTEUP Exam 2014 Incomplete Result for Absent (AB)/ Incomplete (MW)Candidates Corrected Marks has been Announced by Board on 9 March 2019. Hence, Please Click On Given below Link.
BTEUP Scrutiny Result Download Links
Get BTEUP Scrutiny Result 2019 Zone 1 (Western Region)
NOTICE– Special Back Paper Exam will be Conducted on 23.12.2014 (Tuesday)
Important Note:
Board of Technical Education Uttar Pradesh has recently announced Result for the Polytechnic Diploma. Furthermore, After the Result, some students get fewer marks than expected. So they have to fill scrutiny Form for Re-Checking of their Answer books. So, there will be an increase in marks.
Scrutiny Form:
Candidates can get Scrutiny Form from their respective Colleges. Students have to contact their Exam Cell for Scrutiny form.
There is always a chance for an increase in marks through Scrutiny. So Candidates need to fill the form for Subjects in which they are sure that they will have a chance of increment in marks.
However, The Process of Scrutiny is live. Candidates need to be very choosy about the Selection of Exam Paper. It is free to fill scrutiny of any paper.
Kerala Postal Circle Result 2019: Examination Aspirants can check the Kerala Post Office Result 2019 at www.keralapost.gov.in. The Kerala Postal Circle has released the Postman, Mail Guard Exam recently. Applicants who had taken the written examination can check the Kerala Postal Circle Exam Result 2019 now. Also, The result for Kerala Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) 2019 is will be announced soon. Kerala post circle GDS Result will be hosted on the official GDS engagement portal on the scheduled dates. The updates about the Kerala GDS result dates will be updated on this article. And Candidates can fetch the Exam Analysis, Rank Card, Kerala Postal Circle Cut off Marks from this page.
Kerala GDS Result 2019: The result for Kerala Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) 2019 will be announced soon. Kerala post circle GDS Result will be hosted on the official GDS engagement portal on the scheduled dates. The updates about the Kerala GDS result dates and links will be updated on the below table. The Kerala GDS result will be made available as the merit list of the shortlisted candidates. Kerala GDS result for cycle II 2019 will be announced shortly. Those who are waiting for the release of the Kerala Postal GDS Result 2019 are advised to regularly visit this page GDS portal so that they can get all the latest updates.
Kerala Postal Circle GDS Merit List 2019 – Click Here
Kerala Postal Circle Result 2019 – The Kerala Postal Circle has recently declared the Kerala Post Office Postman Result 2019. Earlier, the Department has conducted the examination for the applicants of the 594 postmen and Mail Guard posts. From the time of the completion of the exam, most of the individuals are browsing the official website keralapost.gov.in. Now, it’s time to keep all your tension aside and look at the Kerala Postal Circle Result 2019. And finally, the Kerala Post Office Exam Result 2019 link is available to the individuals. Now, you require the roll number and name to view your Exam score. Scroll down to check the Kerala Post Office Postman Mail Guard Exam Result 2019 quickly.
Kerala Postal Circle Result 2019
Score for Kerala Post Office Postman Mailguard Exam 2019
Kerala Post Office Postman & Mail Guard Exam Score 2019 – Click Here
About Kerala Postal Circle
The Kerala Postal Circle was formulated on 1st July 2019. It is the Kerala state government-operated postal system in India. This Dept is having approximately 154,939 post offices in India. Recently, the Kerala Postal Dept had dispatched the Notification for the Postman and Mail Guard vacancies. A massive no of aspirants had applied and attended the Kerala Post Office Exam 2019 on 9th April 2019. And now, finally, the department has released the Kerala Post Office Result Cutoff Marks Rank Card 2019 at www.keralapost.gov.in. Hence, try to clink on the below links and analyze your performance in the exam with the cut off marks and the scorecard. Get Kerala Post GDS Result 2019, Kerala Postal Circle Result 2019, Kerala Post Office Postman & Mail Guard Exam Score – www.keralapost.gov.in. Here on this page applicants can get the Kerala Postal GDS Results 2019.
Kerala Postal Circle Cutoff Marks – Exam Analysis
Category Name
Percentage of Cut off Marks
General
40% Aggregate and Min 10 Marks in all Subjects
SC/ ST
33% Aggregate and Min 8 Marks in all Subjects
OBC
37% Aggregate and Min 9 Marks in all Subjects
Kerala Postal Circle Result, Rank Card, Merit List pdf download | GDS Kerala Result Date
Individuals can check the Kerala Post Officer Result from the official website i..e, keralapost.gov.in results along with the Kerala Postal Circle Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List publishing date 2019. Hence, candidates who have taken the Kerala Postal Circle Postman Exam can check the Kerala Postal GDS Result 2019. Now, they need the Registred id, Password, registration number, name, dob, etc. Hence, follow the following steps to check the Kerala Post Office Exam Result 201.
Steps to download the Kerala Post Office Exam Result 2019
At first, visit the official website www.keralapost.gov.in results.
Now, Search the Kerala Post Office Result 2019 link
Later, enter the required date in the fields.
Now, click on the submit button to view the Kerala Postal Circle Result pdf.
Later download the Kerala Postal Circle Rank Card 2019.
Finally, the result will appear on your screen.
Take or download a copy of the Kerala Postal Circle Result for future reference.
Karnataka GDS Result 2019 @ appost.in | Get Direct link for Karanataka GDS Result 2019 Merit list here: Karnataka Postal Circle will soon announce the result for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS). Candidates those who have applied for the post can check and download your result from the below link. Here we have given a quick link to access your Karnataka Postal GDS Result 2019 easily. Candidates can get the complete details from the official website www.appost.in. On this page, anyone can check the Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) Result 2019 by using the direct link. The Karnataka Post Office GDS Merit List PDF Available Here…..
Latest Update on 27th November 2019:The Karnataka GDS Result 2019 is Under process. All the candidates are advised to keep checking this page for more updates. Here we will be updating the Karnataka GDS Result Expected Date soon……
Karnataka GDS Result 2019 – Download Here
The application process for the recruitment of eligible candidates for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) was invited in the month of August 2019. This recruitment process conducted to fill up 2637 candidates for Gramin Dak Sevak Posts in Karnataka state. The Karnataka Post circle GDS merit list will be purely based on the marks of the candidates in SSC. On this page, anyone can check the All-State Postman & Mail Guard Result Result 2019 by using the direct link Indian Post Office Result 2019. Registered candidates can download their GDS Merit list 2019 Karnataka from this page directly by visiting this page. The result link will activate at the time of the result announcement.
Karnataka Postal Circle GDS Result 2019 – Overview
The Karnataka GDS Result (cycle II 2019) will be declared soon. The Provisional shortlisted candidates will invite for the Document verification process. Based on the Document verification process, the final result will declare. Applicants should keep track of this page to get all the latest updates of the Karnataka GDS result date 2019. A huge number of applicants may think that when GDS Result published in Karnataka. Based on the Karnataka Postal Circle GDS Results Merit List PDF, candidates will get select for the Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) Posts.
Karnataka GDS Expected Cut-Off marks 2019
After the Document Verification process, the final result will announce. As per the selection process for the post of GDS, after the declaration of GDS Merit List 2019 Karnataka shortlisted candidates will be called for verification of all the original documents and certificates. The complete information about the DV date, time, venue and other information will be intimated to candidates by the district recruiting authority. The final recruitment will be carried forward at the district level by the designated authority. Also, applicants can get the Karnataka GDS Result 2019 Merit list and Karnataka Post circle GDS result from this page. Here we have provided a direct link to download the Karnataka Postal Gramin Dak Sevak Results 2019.
Community/category
Expected Cut-off marks
Unreserved (UR)
95
Other Backward Classes (OBC)
89.90
Schedule Caste (SC)
83.84
Scheduled Tribe (ST)
83
PWD-A
78
PWD-B
77
PWD-C
78
Economically Weaker Section (EWS)
87.89
How to check Karnataka GDS Result 2019 Merit list?
Candidates must visit the official website of the Gramin Dak Sevak Engagement portal appost.in
On the home page, search for the "Results" tab.
Click on "Karnataka (2637 posts)" link.
The desired merit list for Karnataka GDS will be download by clicking the respective result link
Check the downloaded merit list PDF and search for the name.
Hyderabad-based Karvy Stock Broking pledged securities worth Rs 2,300 crore of almost 95,000 clients with three private banks and a large non-banking finance company as collateral to raise loans worth over Rs 600 crore for itself, according to two persons with direct knowledge of an ongoing probe by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) into the client positions of a number of retail brokers. The outcome of the Sebi investigation is yet to be made public.Last week, the capital market regulator banned Karvy from taking new clients over client defaults worth Rs 2,000 crore. The Sebi order said the stock broking firm misused clients' power of attorney provision and transferred Rs 1,096 crore to its group company, Karvy Realty.The extent to which Karvy used client securities as collateral to raise funds for itself emerged after Sebi carried out additional inspection of client positions in May, said one of the two people privy to the investigations. 72250760 "Sebi verified the opening balance of brokers lying with clearing corporations. Client transactions were tracked with depositories. Sebi got 21,000 alerts in one day while carrying out this exercise," the person said."This raised the alarm and it was observed that clients' securities were transferred to third party accounts and not to the DP (depository participant) account of clients."The Sebi order of November 22 said that the National Stock Exchange (NSE) conducted a 'limited purpose inspection' of Karvy Stock Broking between January 01, 2019 and August 19, 2019.Some months ago, Karvy's total pledge of clients securities was worth Rs 2,800 crore but that has come down to Rs 2,300 crore."For the last few months, Sebi had been progressively getting Karvy to bring down the pledge levels," the person quoted above said.Sebi has termed the pledge of clients' securities with lenders as invalid. The regulator plans to take up the role of the lenders with the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)."How can banks allow firms to pledge clients' securities as collateral and give loansRs What sort of duediligence are they doing before giving loanRs " said the second person quoted above.Sebi did not respond to ET's email seeking comments.Karvy, responding to ET's queries, said that the loans availed by pledging client securities were about Rs 400 crore and not Rs 600 crore."The pledge of clients' shares with the banks is a practice that is normally undertaken by all broking companies, in so far as the amounts due to them are concerned," the brokerage's spokesperson said. "The securities of the clients that are pledged with the banks pertain to only those securities for which the client is yet to pay the full amount."Sebi said in a circular issued in June 2019 that brokers must segregate securities and funds of clients.Several brokers have survived on a business model that involved pledging clients' shares held in brokers' account. The regulator's decision came in the wake of various complaints alleging mishandling of clients' securities and money by broking firms.Karvy defended the use of clients' securities to raise funds for itself. "Clients' securities, which are not yet fully paid up, do not legally belong to clients, till they are fully paid up," the spokesperson said. "The powers of attorney received from the clients are used for the purposes of ensuring that these are transferred to the pool account, and thereafter to the clearing corporation. Sometimes though, we leave the shares in the pool itself if clients are active traders or, if they have instructed us to do so."Sebi's June circular said brokers could not pledge clients' securities even if they are partly paid up."Being essentially a retail organisation, we have found it difficult, and we are in the process of winding down all the securities that have been pledged. For most banks, we have already provided alternative collaterals to release the pledge and are in an advanced stage of negotiating with the other banks. There is no directive from Sebi that the pledge is invalid," the Karvy spokesperson said.
The dynamics of a financial services firm differ vastly from those at manufacturing firms, especially during distress, because value could vapourise in a blink. A rule to resolve defaults at NBFCs is what the industry needed, but timely resolution will be key to its success, says Saloni Shukla.Financial institutions' meltdown could be quicker than wax. Often, it's chaotic. When JPMorgan's head of investment banking Douglas Braunstein sat to negotiate a Federal Reserve backed rescue of Bear Stearns in 2008, all that he offered was $1. Overnight the storied financial institution lost 90% value. More than a decade later when Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services' fortunes began to slide, its venerable shareholders orphaned it.The collapse of IL&FS froze the credit markets and the contagion spread. Non-banking finance companies were shut out of the market throwing investors into a tizzy and speculation over which would be the next domino to fall. It fell. Dewan Housing Finance Co, a mortgage lender, began defaulting and it was a scramble among lenders to grab their share of what was left. There was no law to deal with these failures.Last week, the government stepped in to prevent both — a sudden erosion in value of a financial services company, and for an orderly wind-up or resolution of a failed institution. It empowered the regulator to direct bankruptcy proceedings of a financial institution, which was lacking though a bankruptcy law became operational in 2016.Unlike manufacturing companies, which affect only a small set of suppliers and customers, troubles in a financial institution could lead to risk aversion and their inter connectedness could lead to even sound companies finding it difficult to access credit and meet their obligations."There is no other way. If the NBFC is in trouble, how else will you resolve the issue in a timebound manner and put a stop on the misdoings of the NBFC," says Ravi Subramanian, CEO, Shriram Housing Finance. "Till now NBFCs have got away with murder because no one wanted to dip their fingers into it. Now, if resolutions are monitored and driven by the regulator, it will keep in mind the interests of both lenders and the public depositors."Since IL&FS collapsed in September last year, without announcing any bailout or liquidity window for the struggling non-bank lenders, the government and the Reserve Bank of India announced several measures to arrest the collapse of the non-bank lending space that contributes over 20% of the total credit.The regulator announced measures to increase liquidity in the system aiding banks to lend to NBFCs, and relaxed securitisation and priority sector norms. The government, on its part, announced a partial credit guarantee scheme, which remains a non-starter till date. But these moves did not bring relief across the board, but selectively.REGULATOR-LED RESOLUTIONEmpowered with the new law, the Reserve Bank of India moved quickly to sack the board of DHFL and appoint an administrator that provides hope for public deposits worth Rs 6,000 crore and lenders who are owed nearly Rs 1 lakh crore."Under the amended law, the resolution process can only be initiated by the regulator, the Reserve Bank of India," says Alka Anbarasu of Moody's Investor Services. "RBI's close involvement in the process indicates the NBFI sector's importance to overall financial stability, including the direct effect of any systemically important NBFI's failure on banks and other credit providers."Getting the regulator at the centre of the resolution of financial services companies gives comfort in the background of lenders have been found to be far too slow in taking decisions when it came to either sending companies to NCLT or deciding upon the resolution of stressed assets."History has shown that without the regulator's involvement, things are not moving at all, so the idea is a regulatory push is required to resolve this mess," says Kuntal Sur, partner – financial services, PwC. "In India, unlike in many other evolved markets, self-regulation does not work and, hence, the regulator will have to forcefully do things."While the engagement of the regulator may provide comfort to many market players, the involvement of the central bank in the resolution process raises questions on the role of the lenders. It could also get the regulator entangled in a web of cases where it may not have the bandwidth to deal with."Making the regulator do this and it is accepting this duty, is questionable in my mind because then what are banks doing, a regulator cannot become party to such commercial decisions," says Ashvin Parekh, managing partner, Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services, a financial advisory firm. "Even its independence is impaired, how much the regulator may succumb to political patronage will also become a play not only for this government but for the government's thereafter." 72250742 BANKRUPTCY: ANOTHER TEST BY FIREThe Indian bankruptcy code was designed to deal with the collapse of corporate debtors, and since financial institutions are different, a separate law was sought to deal with the bankrupt financial firms. Almost two years ago, the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance bill was shelved due to public outcry over the depositor bail-in clause. But, is IBC the best way to treat bankrupt financial institutions? It may not be."Financial companies require a special treatment with experts on board. The financial industry is very different from other sectors where assets like land and machinery are quantifiable. Here all assets sit on the book," says Rajesh Narain Gupta, MD, SNG Partners, a law firm. "The minute you take an NBFC to NCLT, customers who have to pay-back may run away, this will lead to a faster death."For an institution with lakhs of customers – be the depositors or borrowers – the appearance of stability is more important as customer behaviour could change quickly. That would throw fresh challenges to the regulator, who would be seen as an owner running an enterprise through an administrator.So any delay in the judicial process could cause more harm than good. Even the NCLTs have become notorious for delays in approving resolution packages, or admitting, or hearing of cases. Many frivolous cases are being filed which clog the system."The law by itself is a good piece of legislation to deal with defaults," says Sridhar Ramachandran, chief investment officer at IndiaNivesh Renaissance Fund that buys distressed assets. "But the challenge is how quickly the NCLT process gets completed."But this can well be a signal for errant management to behave."This is a warning to either shape-up or ship-out, but we also need to think the way financial sector works," says PwC's Sur. "It's a sector where tangible assets are less unlike the manufacturing sector. This is a highly leveraged sector, plus if it is going to IBC it means that the underlying loans are not performing well."With DHFL ordered to bankruptcy, deposit holders with overall exposure of Rs 6,000 crore are at risk of losing their savings. Public deposits contribute 7% of the overall borrowing mix of Rs 83,900 crore. Debenture holders have 37% exposure followed by 31% bank term. But, the IBC recognises the primacy of secured lenders, it is to be seen how the resolution of a nonbank entity is undertaken under the IBC with large number of fixed deposit holders."Almost all of them have 20% of their liquidity as deposits. The moment a few cases of such nature are referred, I am hoping that there will be changes made that would keep depositors at par with lenders when it comes to bankruptcy of financial institutions. We cannot do justice with this process if individual depositors are kept at a much lower level," says Subramanian.The bankruptcy has seen many tweaks and changes since it was introduced in 2016. There have been challenges to its provisions, including whether it was constitutionally valid and the grading of creditors. But the Supreme Court has upheld many provisions of the law that would give comfort to lenders and investors.But what about extending it to financial companies?"Whether this experiment will be successful? The first case will be the test of that," says PwC's Sur.
MUMBAI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has veered around to the view that Reliance Jio needs to shoulder some of Reliance Communications' (RCom) over Rs 21,140-crore adjusted gross revenues (AGR)-based dues, for the spectrum that the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom operator had bought from the bankrupt telco in 2016."The AGR dues that Jio will need to pay will include those on RCom's spectrum that was part of the 2016 trading deal," said a senior official in telecom department, who did not want to be named.The DoT has sent notices to all telcos to self-assess and pay their dues in three months from the apex court order of October 24. Officials say in case of any discrepancies between the telco and DoT calculations, the department will send fresh notices for the balance.Jio had bought more than 45 MHz of airwaves across 13 circles in 800 MHz band from RCom in 2016, through a spectrumtrading pact. Under bandwidth trading rules of 2015, the seller is expected to clear all dues prior to concluding any deal. After that, dues become the buyer's liability. Further, in case any dues are discovered after the deal takes effect, DoT can recover this from one or both sides.Jio didn't respond to ET's emailed queries. But sources at the telco said Jio can't be held liable for RCom's past spectrum dues, citing excerpts from a February 2019 telecom tribunal order in a separate spectrum trading case. It ruled that the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco won't be responsible for RCom's previous spectrum dues. They added that a subsequent Supreme Court judgement of July dismissed DoT's challenge of the tribunal order.But DoT officials say the rules are clear on the liabilities in a trading deal."The seller shall clear all its dues prior to concluding any spectrum trading. Thereafter, any dues recoverable up to the effective date of trade shall be a liability of the buyer," according to the rules. "The government shall, at its discretion, be entitled to recover the amount, if any, found recoverable subsequent to the effective date of the trade, which was not known to the parties at the time of the effective date of trade, from the buyer or the seller, jointly or severally." 72251443 Moreover, a May 20, 2016 letter from the DoT to the two telcos – Jio and RCom – clarified the rules further, citing para 11 of the trading rules on the liability of dues in case of trading deals.Also, the two carriers had written to DoT in January 2016, accepting rules of trading. "...agree that in the event, it is established at any stage that either of the licencees was not in conformance with the terms and conditions of guidelines for spectrum trading or/and of the licence at the time of giving intimation for trading of right to use the spectrum, the government will have the right to take appropriate action which inter-alia may include annulment of trading arrangement," their confirmation letter stated.The development will come as a rude shock to Jio which appeared to have been least affected by the Supreme Court verdict widening the definition of AGR to include non-core items. As per the DoT's initial calculations, Jio, which started operations in September 2016, owed Rs 60.52 crore to the government, compared with over Rs 53,000 crore for Vodafone Idea and over Rs 35,500 crore for Bharti Airtel. In total, some 15 telcos are liable to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in AGR dues.RCom's dues were at Rs 21,140.78 crore, including licence fees, spectrum usage charge (SUC), penalties and interest. The amounts are as per telecom ministry submissions in Parliament. Licence fees and SUC are paid on the basis of AGR. The company is currently undergoing insolvency proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).Some estimates have put Jio's portion of RCom's dues at around Rs 10,000 crore, but it has not been independently confirmed.The official added that the department would need to move the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to recover the rest of RCom's dues, as the telco is in the midst of insolvency proceedings.
NEW DELHI: The Indian government should frame new laws to regulate the monitoring of its citizens by state agencies that may use technology tools, said Justice BN Srikrishna."There should be a special law passed because this kind of access can happen on various platforms," the former Supreme Court judge told ET in an exclusive interview.Justice Srikrishna led a panel that finalised a personal data protection framework for the country and a draft data protection bill that was submitted to the government in July 2018.Pointing to the need for a separate legislation that governs the terms under which the government can resort to surveillance, Srikrishna said there should be clarity on "under what circumstances, who can do it, and what is the procedure" for such actions by the state. He was commenting on the revelations earlier this year that a vulnerability was exploited to inject malware in the messaging app WhatsApp that affected 121 users in India. WhatsApp has accused Israeli cyber intelligence firm NSO of injecting the malware Pegasus to snoop on over 1,400 people globally.Separately, Justice Srikrishna also called for speedy enactment of the proposed personal data protection bill."There is no law today which protects our privacy and nothing prevents an officer from taking away a citizen's data," he said.The government has notified that the personal data protection bill will be placed before Parliament in the current session."Move they must and fast. Because data protection has become a buzzword in the country and simultaneously they (government) must ensure that breaches are stopped, security has to be improved," Justice Srikrishna said.Commenting on the issue of diluting the data localisation clause to enable only critical data to be stored in India, Justice Srikrishna said that one copy of all personal data of Indian citizens needs to be stored within the country as this will enable "access" in case of law and order situations.Other options to source Indian user data from foreign locations — through the MLATs (mutual legal assistance treaties), for instance — are too long-drawn and can take anywhere from 18 months to two years, he said. The Srikrishna Committee has recommended that critical data be stored exclusively in India while one copy of all personal data is required to be stored within the country.The government is yet to announce its final stance on the issue of data localisation.It has also set up a separate committee under Infosys cofounder S Gopalakrishnan to determine how to regulate nonpersonal data.ET had reported that the committee has so far taken inputs from several companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, Ola and Uber along with firms in the health sector to understand their views on how to regulate such data.Justice Srikrishna said that principles such as the doctrine of estate under the property laws — which says that if a property doesn't belong to anyone then it belongs to the government — should be applied to community data. He also said that all non-personal data should remain anonymous when it is shared and should not be submitted for analysis with an aim to profiling people."Community data doesn't belong to any person, (then) whose consent are you going to take?" he said.Justice Srikrishna said the committee under him was tasked with looking at personal data. It had only flagged some of the issues with non-personal data, such as who controls it. "If there are complex issues which need to be addressed, it's better to (keep them) separate (from the personal data protection bill)," he said.
MUMBAI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has veered around to the view that Reliance Jio needs to shoulder some of Reliance Communications' (RCom) over Rs 21,140-crore adjusted gross revenues (AGR)-based dues, for the spectrum that the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom operator had bought from the bankrupt telco in 2016."The AGR dues that Jio will need to pay will include those on RCom's spectrum that was part of the 2016 trading deal," said a senior official in telecom department, who did not want to be named.The DoT has sent notices to all telcos to self-assess and pay their dues in three months from the apex court order of October 24. Officials say in case of any discrepancies between the telco and DoT calculations, the department will send fresh notices for the balance.Jio had bought more than 45 MHz of airwaves across 13 circles in 800 MHz band from RCom in 2016, through a spectrumtrading pact. Under bandwidth trading rules of 2015, the seller is expected to clear all dues prior to concluding any deal. After that, dues become the buyer's liability. Further, in case any dues are discovered after the deal takes effect, DoT can recover this from one or both sides.Jio didn't respond to ET's emailed queries. But sources at the telco said Jio can't be held liable for RCom's past spectrum dues, citing excerpts from a February 2019 telecom tribunal order in a separate spectrum trading case. It ruled that the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco won't be responsible for RCom's previous spectrum dues. They added that a subsequent Supreme Court judgement of July dismissed DoT's challenge of the tribunal order.But DoT officials say the rules are clear on the liabilities in a trading deal."The seller shall clear all its dues prior to concluding any spectrum trading. Thereafter, any dues recoverable up to the effective date of trade shall be a liability of the buyer," according to the rules. "The government shall, at its discretion, be entitled to recover the amount, if any, found recoverable subsequent to the effective date of the trade, which was not known to the parties at the time of the effective date of trade, from the buyer or the seller, jointly or severally." 72251443 Moreover, a May 20, 2016 letter from the DoT to the two telcos – Jio and RCom – clarified the rules further, citing para 11 of the trading rules on the liability of dues in case of trading deals.Also, the two carriers had written to DoT in January 2016, accepting rules of trading. "...agree that in the event, it is established at any stage that either of the licencees was not in conformance with the terms and conditions of guidelines for spectrum trading or/and of the licence at the time of giving intimation for trading of right to use the spectrum, the government will have the right to take appropriate action which inter-alia may include annulment of trading arrangement," their confirmation letter stated.The development will come as a rude shock to Jio which appeared to have been least affected by the Supreme Court verdict widening the definition of AGR to include non-core items. As per the DoT's initial calculations, Jio, which started operations in September 2016, owed Rs 60.52 crore to the government, compared with over Rs 53,000 crore for Vodafone Idea and over Rs 35,500 crore for Bharti Airtel. In total, some 15 telcos are liable to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in AGR dues.RCom's dues were at Rs 21,140.78 crore, including licence fees, spectrum usage charge (SUC), penalties and interest. The amounts are as per telecom ministry submissions in Parliament. Licence fees and SUC are paid on the basis of AGR. The company is currently undergoing insolvency proceedings in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).Some estimates have put Jio's portion of RCom's dues at around Rs 10,000 crore, but it has not been independently confirmed.The official added that the department would need to move the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to recover the rest of RCom's dues, as the telco is in the midst of insolvency proceedings.
KOLKATA: Aditya Mittal, scion of the LN Mittal empire, is likely to chair the board that will run Essar Steel, with directors drawn from the two acquiring partners — ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Corp of Japan.Top industry sources told ET that both companies are working on putting together a core strategy and integration team as the world's biggest maker of the infrastructure alloy gets ready to take Essar Steel into its fold, marking Arcelor-Mittal's first major foray into India.Nippon Steel is expected to send at least two members to the joint board, according to sources close to the discussions. The partners will share responsibility of running Essar Steel: While Nippon Steel will likely focus on operations, Arcelor-Mittal will take charge of marketing and customer relationships, sources said.At 8.6 mtpa, Essar Steel is one of the largest flat-steel facilities in the world. The facility, under administration over debt repayment, is one of the most integrated with downstream and upstream units that include hot and cold-rolling plants, plate mill, pipe unit and pellet factories.ArcelorMittal declined to comment "until completion of the transaction". On the two partners sharing the responsibility of running Essar, a spokesperson at ArcelorMittal referred to a recent comment by the company: "After completion, ArcelorMittal will jointly own and operate ESIL in partnership with Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC)…, in line with the joint venture formation agreement."ArcelorMittal had said in its most recent earnings announcement (Q3, 2019), that "ArcelorMittal and NSC expect to finance the JV through a combination of partnership equity (one-third) and debt (two-thirds), and ArcelorMittal anticipates that its investment in the joint venture will be equity accounted."72251235 Duo Has Technical ExpertiseNippon and Arcelor are believed to be discussing the likelihood of raising funds in Japan, where the cost of money could be lower than in other global hubs."Arcelor's acquisition of Essar Steel is an important development for the Indian steel industry. The Nippon-Arcelor duo has the required technical expertise, marketing acumen and financial capability to run Essar," said Sanak Mishra, former CEO of ArcelorMittal India.Mishra, who has also been an adviser to Essar Steel India, described the latter as "a world-class" asset. "LN Mittal has vast experience in taking over and turning around large steel plants across the world. And, he has the right people to do it," Mishra added.Nippon Steel is a leading global player in flat-steel and galvanised products, which are high value-added items used in making cars and consumer durables.In the past three years, the Essar Steel plant has raised its flat-steel output from 5 mtpa to 7.2 mtpa, and has turned EBITDA-positive."The bleeding has stopped," an official at Essar said.The plant has a rolling capacity of 8.6 mtpa with CR, galvanized and colour-coating lines. The new owners can increase output by 1mtpa by simply adding a caster, a source said.More significantly, Uttam Galva, with its downstream facilities, has also come into the LN Mittal empire, and the new owners could extract the geographical synergy as both sets of acquired assets are in western India.
ET Intelligence Group: The record high valuation premium of large-cap stocks compared with midcaps is likely to renew investors' interest in the latter.Midcaps have underperformed by 26 per cent as compared to their large-cap counterparts in the past three years following investors' flight to high-quality largecaps amid rising uncertainty in the market.This created concentrated positions in the large-cap segment. For instance, of the 1,200 points that the Nifty 50 index gained from its lows in September, 64 per cent was contributed by just four stocks — Reliance Industries (25 per cent contribution), HDFC Bank (15 per cent), ICICI Bank (14 per cent) and HDFC (11 per cent).Besides, the weight of the top 10 stocks in the Nifty reached a record level of 60.6 per cent, according to CLSA. 72250784 Despite their underperformance, investors have not outrightly lowered their exposure to midcaps. Domestic mutual funds received inflows of Rs 14,650 crore in the midcap and small-cap funds in the past 10 months, which is about 30 per cent of the total fund flow, according to AMFI data.The price-earnings (P/E) premium of the MSCI India index over the MSCI Midcap index reached a five-year high of 56.3 per cent, according to Bloomberg data. The price ratio of the mid-cap stocks to the largecap stocks has dropped to the lowest level since 2012.The favourable risk-reward of midcap stocks may prompt investors to turn selectively positive in the near term. Midcap stocks have outperformed in the past one month. Their performance may improve further if the economic downturn shows signs of bottoming out.
Mumbai: Bluechip stocks have been the outperformers in the rally of the Sensex and the Nifty to record levels, but the performance pales in comparison to their global peers.According to Bloomberg 500, a list of top 500 companies by market capitalisation across the globe, shares of Indian companies have been laggards. The list currently has 13 Indian companies out of which eight have failed to even break into the top 200 in terms of year-to-date performance.Bajaj Finance, which recently surpassed State Bank of India to become the 10th most valued stock in Indian markets in terms of market capitalisation, is the best performing Indian stock in the Bloomberg 500 list. Shares of Bajaj Finance have climbed 55 per cent in 2019 and the company is ranked 48 in the list.ITC, whose shares have fallen 13 per cent during the year, is the worst performing Indian company of the lot with a rank of 475. Maruti Suzuki, State Bank of India and Infosys too have ranked below 400 in the list. 72250825 This trend is in-line with the performance of India's benchmark Nifty compared to its global peers. The Nifty has risen 12 per cent during the year, while most of the developed and developing markets have fared much better. US benchmark S&P 500 and the German DAX have both rallied over 23 per cent during the year. China's Shanghai Composite has grown 17 per cent during the year.China's alcohol manufacturer Wuliangye Yibin is the best performer in the Bloomberg 500 list with 161 per cent returns since January this calendar year. Shopify, Blackstone and Apple are among the other top performers in the list, data showed.
The Board of Tata Communications (Tata Comm) appointed Amur Swaminathan Lakshminarayanan as the managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the telecom company. " Board of Directors ("Board") of Tata Communications Limited ("the Company"), has today, appointed Mr. Amur Swaminathan Lakshminarayanan as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company for a term of five years with effect from 26 November 2019," said the firm in a regulatory listing on Tuesday. Lakshminarayanan's appointment as MD and CEO shall be subject to necessary approvals of the shareholders of the Company. Prior to joining Tata Comm, Lakshminarayanan was the president and CEO of TCS , Japan where he was in charge of accelerating the company's market opportunity and developing the brand in the region. The alumnus of London Business School and BITS, Pilani has worked in USA, Hong Kong, Australia, UK as well.
Global markets: Asian shares climb on prospects of trade progress, low rates Asian shares ticked higher on Wednesday as more upbeat signals from Sino-U.S. trade talks fanned hopes of an imminent end to tariff hostilities, which helped offset concerns about a slowing U.S. economy.
CARTOSAT-3 launch LIVE: ISRO to launch first satellite since Chandrayaan 2 Cartosat 3 launch LIVE: CARTOSAT-3 satellite is being launched in order to address the increase in user's demands for large scale urban planning, use of coastal lands, rural resource and infrastructure development and land cover.
Doles making people less creative: Goel Doles and schemes like the MGNREGA have made people less creative and in turn stops their progress as they are satisfied with the status quo, chairper
Mamata Banerjee says Maharashtra is showing the way 'There are still some brave people in the country who are ready to go to prison but not willing to sit in the BJP's lap'
Punjab Postal Circle GDS
