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An international convoy has cut short its mission to Syria's rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta after delivering desperately needed aid as the regime pounded the region, killing dozens as it seized more ground. At least 68 civilians were killed Monday, a monitor said, while dozens of United Nations trucks reached the main town of Douma, the first aid convoy to arrive since a bloody Russian-backed assault began more than two weeks ago. The government blocked medical supplies from the enclave rocked by an ongoing bombardment that has sparked outrage but little action from the West. The 46 aid trucks arrived after fresh air strikes hit the shrinking rebel-held zone and regime troops rapidly advanced, leaving them in control of 40 percent of the region. An AFP reporter in Douma said warplanes were flying overhead and explosions could be heard even as the aid was being unloaded. Source :- yahoonews

The Italian election was a rejection of traditional left and right parties in both the north and south of the country -- but for different reasons, experts said. The far-right League party conquered the north, worried about the rise in immigration, while the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) took the south where concerns about the economy dominate. "In the south, the Five Star vote was a protest of a part of the country that feels neglected as the economic recovery is only being felt in the north," said Roberto D'Alimonte, politics professor at Rome's Luiss university. "We can't be surprised that southern regions, where youth unemployment has spiked and traditional parties have failed to resolve the problem, voted massively in favour of a movement that expresses resentment and anger." Disillusionment had already made itself felt in a constitutional referendum in 2016 in which southern Italy voted massively against both the proposed reform and t...

Myanmar's "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims is continuing, a senior U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday, more than six months after insurgent attacks sparked a security response that has driven nearly 700,000 people into Bangladesh. Andrew Gilmour, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, made the comment after a four-day visit to the Cox's Bazar district in neighboring Bangladesh, where he met people who have fled from Myanmar recently. "I don't think we can draw any other conclusion from what I have seen and heard in Cox's Bazar," Gilmour said in a statement. After Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25, Myanmar soldiers and police swept through villages in what the government says was a legitimate operation to root out "terrorists". Source :- yahoonews

Myanmar's "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims is continuing, a senior U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday, more than six months after insurgent attacks sparked a security response that has driven nearly 700,000 people into Bangladesh. Andrew Gilmour, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, made the comment after a four-day visit to the Cox's Bazar district in neighboring Bangladesh, where he met people who have fled from Myanmar recently. "I don't think we can draw any other conclusion from what I have seen and heard in Cox's Bazar," Gilmour said in a statement. After Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25, Myanmar soldiers and police swept through villages in what the government says was a legitimate operation to root out "terrorists". Rohingya who sought shelter in Bangladesh have reported rape, killings and arson by security forces. The United Nations and United States...

Taiwan will look to its domestic arms industry as well as foreign suppliers to respond to China's continuing military buildup, but has no interest in engaging in an arms race with its cross-strait rival, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The remarks from spokesman Chen Chung-ji came a day after China announced an 8.1 percent rise in its military budget for this year to 1.1 trillion yuan ($173 billion), the world's second largest after the United States. "Taiwan has no intention of getting involved in an arms race with China, or with neighboring countries," Chen told reporters at a briefing. "However, we expect to strengthen our capabilities in self-developing arms, including locally built vessels and aircraft, or even information and communication warfare," Chen said. China regards Taiwan as Chinese territory to be eventually brought under its control, by force if necessary. Under China-imposed diplomatic isolation, Taiwan has few avenues for p...

Myanmar is continuing its "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya with a "campaign of terror and forced starvation" in Rakhine state, a UN human rights envoy said on Tuesday, six months after a military crackdown sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority. Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled over the border to Bangladesh since violence erupted in August, taking with them horrifying testimony of murder, rape and arson by soldiers and vigilante mobs. While the majority of those refugees fled Myanmar last year, Rohingya continue to stream across the border by the hundreds every week. "The ethnic cleansing of Rohingya from Myanmar continues. I don't think we can draw any other conclusion from what I have seen and heard in Cox's Bazar," UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour said after speaking to newly-arrived Rohingya in Bangladesh's crowded refugee camps. Source :- yahoonews

The leader of Malaysia's biggest pro-democracy group said on Tuesday she will stand for parliament in a general election under the banner of an opposition alliance aiming to throw Prime Minister Najib Razak out of office. Maria Chin Abdullah is chairwoman of the activist group Bersih, which means "clean" in the Malay language, and which has for years led anti-government protests against Najib who has been dogged by a scandal over huge losses at a state fund. Her support for the opposition in a general election that must be held by August is likely to bolster the Pakatan Harapan opposition alliance, led by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, especially among urban voters frustrated with Najib's rule. "The system has not worked for us. We have to try new strategies and entering parliament is just one of them,” Maria, 62, she told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur. Source :- yahoonews

South Korean presidential envoys have met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang in the highest-level talks between the rivals in years. The meeting extends a temporary lull in tensions brought by the North's outreach to the South during the recently concluded Pyeongchang Olympics, where North Korean officials expressed Kim's desire for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and willingness to open dialogue with the United States. Reviving meaningful dialogue with the North is critical for the policies of Moon, who insists Seoul should be in the "driver's seat" in international efforts to deal with the North Korean nuclear problem. However, experts say it could be difficult for the South to arrange a summit with the North coming off a year in which Pyongyang test-fired dozens of missiles and conducted its most powerful nuclear test. Source :- yahoonews

The head of scandal-hit Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel announced his resignation on Tuesday after the firm submitted false strength and quality data for products shipped to hundreds of clients worldwide. Hiroya Kawasaki's resignation was a new blow to the reputation of Japan Inc after similar quality-control scandals hit industrial titans ranging from carmaker Nissan to Mitsubishi Materials. Following a deep and prolonged bow in apology, Kawasaki told reporters: "As I think it's best to go ahead quickly with reforms under new members, I ... will step down from president on April 1 this year." "We have caused trouble to many people. As soon as we can, we would like as many people as possible to think that Kobe Steel has changed," added Kawasaki, who had been in the job since 2013. "I'm really sorry." The firm has not yet named a successor but pledged to hold a board meeting "in the near future" to select someone to turn the ship around...

Global carmakers are showing off a mix of low-emission electric vehicles and high-end sports cars at the Geneva International Motor Show. Many of the new offerings display the battery-electric and autonomous technology carmakers say they need to meet tough emissions standards and cope with an expected shift to cars as a service to be ordered rather owned. Mercedes-Benz rolled out its EQA concept car, a compact battery electric vehicle with a virtual radiator that changes appearance depending on the selected driving program. Volkswagen's I.D. Vizzion large electric sedan was shown in an autonomous version without a steering wheel. Big horsepower and fossil fuels remained very much in evidence however. Source :- yahoonews

South Korean prosecutors have called former President Lee Myung-bak to appear for questioning over allegations he took bribes when in office, a prosecutor said on Tuesday in the latest top-level political corruption scandal to rock the country. Prosecutors last month sought a 30-year jail term for former President Park Geun-hye, Lee's successor, who was ousted last year amid an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. Lee was asked to present himself for questioning on March 14, the senior prosecutor said. "We must question (Lee) to reveal the truth", the prosecutor told reporters. "We expect him to show up since we gave sufficient time for him to prepare for the questioning". Lee has denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation into the bribery allegations, summoning his family and confidants and raiding their homes and offices, politically motivated. Source :- yahoonews

In March 1968, a student revolt crushed by Poland's baton-wielding police was used as a pretext for an anti-Semitic purge by the communist regime. It began when the communists banned the 19th-century play "Forefathers' Eve" by poet Adam Mickiewicz claiming it had anti-Russian elements. Two students who contested the ban were expelled from the University of Warsaw, prompting their peers to stage a demonstration on March 8. Backed by other civil groups, particularly workers unhappy with daily life under communism, the pro-democracy protests spread to other cities. The regime used the student revolt as an excuse to unleash an anti-Semitic campaign that was rooted in a settling of scores inside the Communist Party, which was split into two camps. Source :- yahoonews

On the 50th anniversary of a brutal anti-Semitic campaign in Poland, the country faces a diplomatic crisis with Israel over a controversial new Holocaust law. In 1968, partly to settle disputes inside the ruling Communist Party, the Polish government stripped many Jews of party membership -- and thus jobs -- prompting around 12,000 to leave the country. Today, Poland's conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) has been accused of trying to deny the Holocaust after introducing a law notably intended to prevent people from describing Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland as Polish. "It's not the same today," said Adam Michnik, a prominent communist-era dissident who is now editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading liberal newspaper. "There are certainly similarities. Once again there's a growing image of a Poland besieged by enemies and the enemies are the Jews who want to do us harm," he told AFP. Source :- yahoonews

A significant fall in child marriages in South Asia has reduced the rate of marriage for girls globally, the U.N. children's agency said Tuesday. More educational opportunities for young girls, government investments in adolescent girls and strong advocacy about the illegality of child marriage saw 25 million fewer child marriages in the last decade. UNICEF says progress in India helped reduced the risk of a girl in South Asia marrying before her 18th birthday to about 30 percent from nearly 50 percent. Some 650 million women living today were married as children. A girl forced to marry young is less likely to finish school and more likely to be abused and suffer pregnancy complications, said Anju Malhotra, UNICEF's principal gender adviser. Such marriages also are more likely to perpetuate poverty. Source :- yahoonews

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was ready to cooperate if Britain asks it for help investigating an incident involving a former Russian double agent who fell ill after exposure to an unknown substance. Sergei Skripal, once a colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence service, was critically ill in hospital on Tuesday after he was exposed to an unidentified substance in southern England. "Nobody has approached us with such a request," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters, when asked if the British authorities had been in touch seeking help. "Moscow is always open for cooperation." When asked to respond to British media speculation that Russia had poisoned Skripal, Peskov said: "It didn't take them long." Calling the incident "a tragic situation," he said the Kremlin did not have information about what had happened. Source :- yahoonews

Only an impartial investigation in Syria by an international commission can determine if allegations about the use of chemical weapons are true, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Asked about the possibility that the United States could launch strikes on Syria over allegations that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had used chemicals weapons, Peskov said the Kremlin hoped that nothing would be done that breaches international law. Source :- yahoonews

Turkey, Russia and Iran will hold a summit in April to discuss Syria and potential steps in the region, the spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hami Aksoy also told a news conference Ankara would tell U.S. authorities during meetings on March 8-9 that it expected Washington to take concrete steps on retrieving weapons provided to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Aksoy said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Russia between March 12 and 14, and later meet with his U.S. counterpart Rex Tillerson in Washington on March 19. Aksoy said Cavusoglu would also discuss during a visit to Germany the extradition of former Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, who was released by a Czech court last week despite a Turkish extradition request. Source :- yahoonews

British counter-terrorism police are helping the investigation of what caused the illness of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, Britain's top counter-terrorism officer said on Tuesday. The 66-year-old former spy and a 33-year-old woman who was known to him were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping center on Sunday in the English city of Salisbury after exposure to what police said was an unknown substance. "It's a very unusual case and the critical thing is to get to the bottom of what's caused these illnesses as quickly as possible," Rowley told BBC radio. "If necessary we will bring we will bring that investigation into the counter-terrorism network. We're doing all the things you would expect us to do, we're speaking to witnesses, we're taking forensic samples at the scene, we're doing toxicology work and that will help us to get to an answer. I can't say any more at this stage," Rowley said. Source :- yahoonews

Turkey will set up camps to settle 170,000 people in nine locations near Syria's Idlib, and in the area Ankara controls by further east in northern Syria, Turkish diplomatic sources said. Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies, which six weeks ago launched an operation in the Afrin region targeting the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, also control a swathe of land further east in Syria that stretching from the area around Azaz to the Euphrates river, which was taken during its "Euphrates Shield" operation that ended in early in 2017. (Corrects second paragraph to show Turkey launched operation in Afrin, not Idlib) (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by David Dolan. Source :- yahoonews

The French government is proposing a law that would say anyone under 15 cannot consent to sex, after widespread shock at two cases involving 11-year-old girls. It would be the first such law in France, which currently does not have a rule saying a child under a certain age is considered incapable of consenting to sex. The government's women's affairs office said Tuesday that it has decided to set the threshold at 15 in a bill to be presented to parliament later this month. Earlier, officials had discussed setting it at 13. President Emmanuel Macron, among others, argued for it to be older. In two recent legal cases, adult men were accused of having sex with 11-year-old girls who were considered consenting under French law. Source :- yahoonews

 Justin Schultz took a pass from Phil Kessel and buried it in the wide-open net 2:36 into overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Monday night. Tristan Jarry made several key stops for the Penguins early in the extra period, and Schultz's fourth goal of the season helped Pittsburgh improve to 10-1 in overtime at home this season. Evgeni Malkin scored his 37th goal for the Penguins and added an assist. Kris Letang and Chad Ruhwedel also scored for Pittsburgh. Jarry finished with 35 saves as the Penguins pulled within one point of Washington for first in the crowded Metropolitan Division. Mark Giordano, Mikael Backlund and Troy Brouwer scored for the Flames, who outplayed the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions for long stretches before dropping their fourth straight. Jon Gillies stopped 28 shots but had no chance when Kessel slid a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Schultz. Source :- yahoonews

The Kremlin said Tuesday that Russia has not been approached by British authorities to help in an investigation over how and why a former Russian spy was found critically ill in a shopping mall in a town in southern England. British media have identified him as Sergei Skripal, 66, who was convicted in Russia on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison. Skripal, who is said to have suffered exposure to an "unknown substance" was freed in 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian spy swap. A woman was also found unconscious Sunday afternoon in Salisbury, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of London. Dimitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said Tuesday at a daily conference call with media in Russia there has been no request for help but that "Moscow is always ready to cooperate." Wiltshire Police, which is responsible for the Salisbury area, said the man and woman appeared to know one another and had no visible injuries. So...

Baan Saladin, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha rowed a boat across a pond dotted with lotus leaves, planted some rice stalks in a field and turned to villagers who had come to meet him in Baan Saladin village in central Thailand. Speaking of an oft-delayed general election, the 63-year-old Prayuth, who led a 2014 coup that ousted the last elected government, simply said: "Elect a good person." Prayuth was in Nakhon Pathom province last month not to campaign for an election, but to roll out his "Long-lasting Thainess" plan, which involves sending soldiers and social workers to meet with people across Thailand to listen to their problems. But the "Thainess" undertaking is widely seen as the unofficial launch of Prayuth's own campaign to stay on as prime minister. Prayuth had promised to hold an election in November, but said last week the vote would take place "no later" than February 2019. Source :- yahoonews

In an unhinged media spree that continued into Monday evening, former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg told multiple outlets that he won’t comply with the subpoena he received to appear before a federal grand jury hearing evidence surrounding Russia’s possible interference in the 2016 election. “Let him arrest me,” Nunberg told The Washington Post on Monday of special counsel Robert Mueller, who he says has requested his appearance before the jury this Friday. Mueller, the former FBI director who is leading the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, is also seeking any records Nunberg has relating to Trump and nine others involved with his administration, including emails and telephone logs, Nunberg said. “I think it would be funny if they arrested me,” he said live on the phone with MSNBC shortly after the Post story broke. Source :- yahoonews

Sandra Bullock says she “started to cry” when she saw the “Black Panther” cast on the 90th Academy Awards red carpet during an interview with “Access Hollywood” on Sunday. “I started to cry backstage when I was telling them [the movie’s cast] how much the film meant to me as a woman, but how much it meant to me as a mother,” she said. “That says a lot about where we are in this world and in the world of superheroes.” Bullock is the mother of two black children, Louis Bardo Bullock and Laila Bullock. She adopted the New Orleans-born Louis in 2010, and foster child Laila, also a Louisiana native, in 2015. Of her love for “Black Panther,” Bullock told a heartfelt anecdote that stresses the dire need for representation in entertainment: “I’m so grateful to Marvel because about five years ago, my son asked me if there were any brown Legos,” she said. Source :- yahoonews

China kicked off its annual full session of parliament on Monday, which will approve a slew of top appointments before the end of its two week-long meeting. Delegates of the National People's Congress will elect the Chinese president, vice president, and chair of the State Central Military Commission on March 17. They will confirm the nomination for the premier, as well as vice chairs of the State Central Military Commission on March 18. They will also elect the chair of the National Supervision Commission on the same day. Delegates will confirm the nomination for the country's vice premiers, state councillors, ministers and new governor of the People's Bank of China on March 19. Here are some names to watch for and their possible new positions, based on what people with direct knowledge of the situation, sources with ties to the leadership, and diplomats have told Reuters: Source :- yahoonews

The economic and financial impact on Qatar of a nine-month Saudi-led blockade is fading, but some risks for the Gulf emirate remain, the International Monetary Fund has said. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut all diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar last June, closing its only land border and banning all flights to and from the emirate. In a report released late Monday, the IMF said the effect of the blockade on economic activity in Qatar had been "transitory" as new trade routes were quickly established and growth remained positive. Foreign financing and resident private sector deposits had fallen by $40 billion but that had been offset by cash injections by the central bank and the Qatar Investment Authority -- the emirate's sovereign wealth fund, it said. Like other Gulf energy producers, Qatar has been hit by the slump in world oil and gas prices which has forced it to introduce austerity measures to balance its books. Source :- yahoonew...

China's ceremonial legislature says a broad consensus has been obtained on constitutional amendments, including one to abolish term limits that will allow Xi Jinping to continue as president indefinitely. A report submitted to the National People's Congress at the opening of its annual session on Monday says the process was set in motion by Xi at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party's Politburo on Sept. 29. A working group was formed to spearhead the process led by NPC Chairman Zhang Dejiang, assisted by Xi loyalists. The report said that following an extensive process of soliciting opinion, the draft amendments were approved at a meeting of the NPC's Standing Committee at the end of January. Some have raised concerns about a return to one-man rule. Source :- yahoonews

The Russian military has offered Syrian rebels safe passage out of eastern Ghouta, setting out a deal by which the opposition would surrender its last major stronghold near Damascus to President Bashar al-Assad. The Russian defense ministry said rebels could leave with their families and personal weapons through a secure corridor out of eastern Ghouta, where Moscow-backed government forces are making rapid gains in a fierce assault. The Russian proposal did not specify where the rebels would go, but the terms echo previous deals by which insurgents have ceded ground to Assad and been given safe passage to other opposition-held territory near the Turkish border. "The Russian Reconciliation Center guarantees the immunity of all rebel fighters who take the decision to leave eastern Ghouta with personal weapons and together with their families,” said the defense ministry statement. Vehicles would "be provided, and the entire route will be guarded", it added. Source :- yah...

A former Russian double agent convicted of treason in Moscow was critically ill in a British hospital on Tuesday after exposure to an unknown substance, with police saying it had to be "alive to the fact of state threats". In its first response, the Kremlin said it was ready to cooperate if Britain asked for help in its investigation of the "tragic situation". Sergei Skripal, once a colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence service, was given refuge in Britain after he was exchanged in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the West as part of a Cold War-style spy swap on the tarmac of Vienna airport. But the 66-year-old former spy and a 33-year-old woman who was known to him were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping center on Sunday in the English city of Salisbury after exposure to what police said was an unknown substance. Both were critically ill in intensive care. While the British authorities said there was no known risk to the public, police sealed of...

Police in central Sri Lanka imposed a curfew to quell anti-Muslim violence after mobs from the majority ethnic Sinhalese population burned shops and homes in retaliation for a death that's the subject of a dispute. The violence in the Kandy district occurred Monday after an ethnic Sinhalese man died in hospital after he was attacked by a group of Muslims. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara confirmed the imposition of curfew but declined to provide details on injuries and property damage. The government said in a statement that police were put on alert to prevent the violence from spreading and asked the people to "act with responsibility and remain calm." At least 11 shops and homes were set on fire, said Keerthi Tennakoon, chief executive of the Sri Lanka-based Center for Human Rights and Research group. About 75 percent of Sri Lanka's population is Sinhalese who are mostly Buddhists while about nine percent is Muslim. Source :- yahoonews

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un grins, just on the verge of a belly laugh, as he grasps the hand of a visiting South Korean official. He sits at a wide conference table and beams as the envoys look on deferentially. He smiles broadly again at dinner, his wife at his side, the South Koreans seeming to hang on his every word. Kim is used to being the center of gravity in a country that his family has ruled with unquestioned power since 1948, but the chance to play the senior statesman on the Korean Peninsula with a roomful of visiting South Koreans has afforded the autocratic leader a whole new raft of propaganda and political opportunities. Photos released by North Korean state media Tuesday showing Kim meeting with the envoys are all the more remarkable coming just months after a barrage of North Korean weapons tests and threats against Seoul and Washington had many fearing war. Source :- yahoonews

Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency for 10 days to rein in the spread of communal violence, a government spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after Buddhists and Muslims clashed in the Indian Ocean island's central district of Kandy. Tension has been growing between the two communities in Sri Lanka over the past year, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalizing Buddhist archaeological sites. Some Buddhist nationalists have also protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise. "At a special cabinet meeting, it was decided to declare a state of emergency for 10 days to prevent the spread of communal riots to other parts of the country," the spokesman, Dayasiri Jayasekara, told Reuters. Source :- yahoonews

The most damage inflicted in sumo in recent times has been to the image of Japan's tradition-steeped national sport. An alcohol-fueled restaurant brawl that left a Mongolian wrestler with a fractured skull and a sexual assault scandal involving the sport's highest-ranked referee have rocked the sport in recent months. Those episodes followed a match-fixing investigation in 2011 and the death of a teenage wrestler in training in 2007 that have tainted sumo over the last decade. Organizers are hoping to restore its battered reputation when the Spring Grand Sumo tournament starts on the weekend. Takanoiwa, who fractured his skull in an altercation with former Grand Champion Harumafuji in a restaurant last October, is hoping to make a comeback at the Osaka event. "I'm just focusing on doing my best," the 28-year-old Takanoiwa told reporters last week during a training session for the tournament. "It will take a bit more time to be ready." Source :- yahoon...

South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday summoned conservative former president Lee Myung-bak for questioning as a criminal suspect in a bribery scandal, the country's latest former head of state to be investigated. The move means that all living former South Korean presidents have now either been convicted, charged or embroiled in criminal inquiries. "We need to investigate former president Lee to find the truth (in the scandal) in a transparent and effective manner," Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified Seoul prosecutor as saying. An official confirmed the move to AFP. Allegations of corruption involving the 76-year-old's relatives and aides during his 2008-2013 presidential term have mounted in recent weeks as prosecutors investigate multiple cases of bribery amounting to millions of dollars. Two of the ex-president's former aides have been arrested and the homes and offices of his brothers raided. Lee was told to present himself to prosecutors on Wednesday nex...

Investors have been climbing on board and the stock has been going nowhere but up… The Washington Post says, “this industry could be bigger than the NFL by 2020.”  And in case you’re wondering that’s $35 BILLION compared to $10 BILLION for the NFL. Are your juices flowing yet?   They should be.  HERE’S WHY… While there’s oodles of cash driving this industry this biotech stock is one that is going to bolt! In the last month the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) is off more-than 5% – while Vitality Biopharma VBIO HAS NEARLY DOUBLED IN PRICE. We’re featuring one of the hottest biotech stocks out there that’s grabbing investors’ attention, Vitality Biopharma VBIO and for no small reason.  Read on… Vitality Biopharma VBIO is developing proprietary cannabinoid pharmaceuticals for treatment of serious neurological and inflammatory disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis. Source :- yahoonews

A South Korean governor who was seen as a leading presidential contender resigned Tuesday after his secretary publicly accused him of raping her, making him the highest-profile South Korean man taken down by the #MeToo movement. Ahn Hee-jung, governor of South Chungcheong province, said everything was his fault and he was sorry in an early morning Facebook post announcing his resignation hours after his secretary said in a live television interview that Ahn had raped her several times since June and that she couldn't say no because of how powerful he was. The provincial government later confirmed his resignation had taken effect. Ahn has been a leading progressive voice on gender and human rights in conservative South Korea and finished second behind current President Moon Jae-in during their party primary last year. Source :- yahoonews

A military investigation into the Niger attack that killed four American service members concludes the team didn't get required senior command approval for their risky mission to capture a high-level Islamic State militant, several U.S. officials familiar with the report said. It doesn't point to that failure as a cause of the deadly ambush. Initial information suggested the Army Special Forces team set out on its October mission to meet local Nigerien leaders, only to be redirected to assist a second unit hunting for Doundou Chefou, a militant suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an American aid worker. Officials say it now appears the team went after Chefou from the onset, without outlining that intent to higher-level commanders. Source :- yahoonews

Turkey's Foreign Ministry says the country plans to establish camps in nine locations in northern Syria to house people displaced by fighting amid Ankara's offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters. Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Tuesday that the camps would be built in a zone controlled by Turkish-backed forces, as well as in Idlib province where Turkish forces are trying establishing a "de-escalation zone" under an agreement reached between Turkey, Russia and Iran. Aksoy said the camps would host a total of 170,000 people. Turkey controls a swath of territory revolving around the town of al-Rai, al-Bab and Jarablus — a border zone that Turkey and Turkey-backed rebels took from the Islamic State group in 2016. Turkey has also launched a campaign to oust a Syrian Kurdish militia from the enclave of Afrin that Ankara considers to be "terrorist" and linked to an insurgency within Turkey's own borders. Source :- yahoonews

In a remarkably public confrontation, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican allies of President Donald Trump pleaded with him Monday to back away from his threatened international tariffs, which they fear could spark a dangerous trade war. Trump retorted: "We're not backing down." The president said U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico would not be spared from his plans for special import taxes on steel and aluminum, but he held out the possibility of later exempting the longstanding friends if they agree to better terms for the U.S. in talks aimed at revising the North American Free Trade Agreement. "We've had a very bad deal with Mexico; we've had a very bad deal with Canada. It's called NAFTA," he declared. Trump spoke shortly after a spokeswoman for Ryan, a Trump ally, said the GOP leader was "extremely worried" that the proposed tariffs would set off a trade war and urged the White House "to not advance with this plan." ...

The Latest on developments at the Geneva International Motor Show (all times local): 10 a.m. French automaker Renault has unveiled its futuristic — and funky — concept car EZ-Go, featuring a rooftop opening that allows passengers to enter by a ramp for easy access. Envisioning smaller-scale public transport for increasingly populated cities, Renault has constructed a vehicle with a numeric display on the front and back, a bit like the screen on a bus. The six-seater self-driving electric vehicle aims to bridge public and private transportation needs, with options like on-demand pickup like by a taxi. Passengers sit around the windows in U-shaped seating. Seemingly almost symmetrical from the side, the tail lights and the opening hatch are the main ways of telling front from back. Source :- yahoonews

The accelerating demise of diesel, long used by carmakers to boost fuel-efficiency, is undermining their plans to meet looming European Union CO2 goals, and avoid big annual fines. Executives gathered on Tuesday at the Geneva auto show are grappling with unpalatable choices: re-engineer existing vehicles at huge expense, restrict sales of some profitable models; or risk hundreds of millions of euros in penalties. Others are clinging to the hope that the image of the latest Euro 6 diesels may yet be rehabilitated, and their fortunes restored. "I am worried," Volkswagen Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said in a Reuters Television interview. "But it's our job to solve these problems," he said. "I'm firmly convinced that diesel will experience a revival." Source :- yahoonews

Australia and East Timor will sign a treaty that draws the first-ever maritime border between the neighbors, resolving years of bitter wrangling with a deal that carves up billions of dollars of oil and gas riches that lie beneath the Timor Sea. Australia and its impoverished half-island neighbor are to sign the agreement at the United Nations on Tuesday, putting to rest a dispute that has dominated and soured relations since 2002, when East Timor emerged as a fledgling nation independent of Indonesia. The terms of the deal negotiated in The Hague through the Permanent Court of Arbitration have not been made public. But achieving East Timor's ambition of a border midway between the two countries would encourage Indonesia to renegotiate its own much longer maritime boundary with Australia agreed in 1971 under outdated international law. The Indonesian border with Australia extends east and west of the new East Timor-Australia boundary and the vast expanse Indonesia allowed Australia...

The Latest on talks between North and South Korea (all times local): 6:10 p.m. South Korean presidential envoys have returned home a day after they met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a rare visit to the North. The South Korean delegation led by national security director Chung Eui-yong was expected to head straight to Seoul's presidential palace to report to President Moon Jae-in. Moon's office is expected to hold a media briefing on the outcome of the visit later Tuesday. North Korean state media said the North and South Korean officials discussed a possible summit between Kim and Moon during a meeting and dinner hosted by Kim on Monday in Pyongyang. The rival Koreas have been taking steps to repair ties strained by North Korean nuclear weapons and missile tests after the North reached out to the South over the recently concluded Pyeongchang Olympics. Source :- yahoonews

The Kremlin said Tuesday it had no information on a former Russian double agent who fell ill in Britain after exposure to an unknown substance, calling the incident "tragic." "We see that such a tragic situation happened," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. "But we don't have information about what could be the cause, what this person did." Peskov added that London has not made any requests for assistance in the probe which police had launched after the 66-year-old former Russian military intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal was found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury. Asked if Moscow was ready to cooperate, Peskov said that "Moscow is always ready for cooperation." He said he did not know whether Skripal was still a Russian citizen. Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in prison for espionage in 2006 before being granted refuge in Britain in a high-profile US-Russian spy swap in 2010. The case has evoked p...

Sudan's ambassador to Egypt has returned to Cairo more than two months after he was recalled by his government for consultations, a move that signaled deteriorating relations at the time. The return of Abdel-Mahmoud Abdel-Halim, who flew back to Cairo late on Monday, follows a January meeting between the leaders of Egypt and Sudan — Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Omar al-Bashir — on the sidelines of an African summit in Addis Ababa. The two countries' foreign ministers and heads of intelligence also held talks in Cairo last month. Tension between the two neighbors was primarily over Khartoum's repeated attempts to revive a longstanding border dispute and its perceived support for the construction of a massive dam on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia that Cairo fears will reduce its vital water share. Source :- yahoonews

Japan's navy on Tuesday appointed the first woman to command a warship squadron, including the flagship Izumo helicopter carrier, as it tries to lure more females to make up for a dearth of male recruits in graying Japan. Ryoko Azuma, will command four ships with a combined crew of 1,000, of which only 30 are women, that make up the Maritime Self Defense Force's (MSDF) First Escort Division. "I don't think about being a woman. I will concentrate my energy on fulfilling my duties as commander," Azuma, 44, said at a change of command ceremony attended by 400 sailors aboard the Izumo, which was docked at a shipyard in Yokohama near Tokyo for repairs. When she joined the MSDF in 1996 women were barred from serving on warships, a rule that the navy abolished ten years ago. Submarines, however, are still crewed only by men. Japan's military, like the wider economy is turning to women to make up a shortfall in personnel as the nation's working age population shri...

It always made sense that, sooner or later, President Trump would attend one of the big annual Washington press dinners. True, we media denizens are part of the “swamp” Mr. Trump loves to hate, but we also give him oxygen. Tweets only go so far in the vast enterprise that is presidential communications. And of course he’d be the center of attention – with legions of reporters hanging on his every word and facial expression – as he and the Washington political scene were being roasted. Last year, the president pointedly skipped both the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the smaller, off-camera Gridiron Dinner, the annual gala and satirical show put on by Washington’s oldest journalistic club. So when the president agreed to attend last Saturday’s Gridiron and deliver remarks, a frisson of nervous anticipation shot through the group. Would he really show up? Would he go off script? Would he walk out? Even Trump allies were asking themselves the same questions. Source :- yahoonews

Florida's Republican-controlled Senate approved sweeping reforms to the state's gun law on Monday that raise the minimum purchase age and add a three-day waiting period in response to the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history last month. Senators approved the legislation after an amendment removed a provision to arm most teachers. That was designed in part to increase support from many parents, law enforcement officials and lawmakers in both parties - including Republican Governor Rick Scott - who objected to the idea. The exclusion was adopted by voice vote as part of a package of legislation the Senate passed a short time later, 20-18, to raise the minimum legal age for buying all guns in Florida to 21 and impose a three-day waiting period for any gun purchase. The bill now moves to Florida's Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The minimum age for handguns nationally is already 21. However, a person can be as young as 18 to buy a rifle in Florida, wit...

A convicted Arizona felon has been formally charged with eight counts of first-degree murder over a series of fatal shootings on Phoenix-area streets late last year, court documents showed on Monday.  Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 35, was also charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary during the three-week crime spree, according to a state grand jury indictment handed down on Thursday and made public on Monday. Police have said Cooksey committed nine murders, beginning in November when two men were found fatally shot in a parked car. The rampage ended with his mother, Rene Cooksey, and stepfather, Edward Nunn, shot dead in their living room. It was not clear whether he was only charged in eight of those nine killings. Cooksey has been in jail since Dec. 17, when the blood-stained suspect was arrested by police over the death of his parents.A police spokesman has said there was ballistic evidence linking the crimes in addition to other evidence and witnesses.Cookse...

The U.S. Army confirmed on Monday that it had mishandled retired bomb-sniffing war dogs and said it would comply with recommendations in a Defense Department Inspector General’s report that called for reforms. In a report released on Friday, the Inspector General said that canine heroes, which saved the lives of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan while working with brigade combat teams to sniff out roadside bombs, were mistreated by the Army after they returned to the United States. Army spokesman Major Christopher Ophardt said in a statement emailed to Reuters, “The Army concurs with the DoDIG [cq] (Defense Inspector General) report and is complying with” its recommendations. The report said that some dogs were left in kennels for up to 11 months, beyond a deadline for giving them away for adoption or re-using them in the military or other government agencies. It said they were mistreated through lack of care and attention, and others may have been put down. Source :- yahoonews

White nationalists and protestors clashed Monday just outside Michigan State University ahead of a speech by prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer. Hundreds of protestors had gathered on a road leading into the campus when they were met by several dozens supporters of Spencer. Fights broke out, resulting in at least six arrests, according to Reuters. Armored police vehicles and officers wearing riot gear were present and promptly broke up the brawls before handcuffing half a dozen of the participants, the outlet reported. Police then formed a blockade to prevent further fights from erupting. Footage of the incident was captured on video and posted on social websites like Twitter. Source :- yahoonews

Extreme winds have toppled a tree, believed to be well over two centuries old, that was planted by former US president George Washington on his Mount Vernon estate. The 227-year-old Canadian hemlock which collapsed on Friday was planted by the founding father and first American president back in 1791. Mount Vernon announced the tree had fallen over on its Facebook page on Friday evening. “Today at Mount Vernon, strong winds brought down a 227-year-old Canadian Hemlock, as well as a Virginia cedar that stood watch over Washington’s tomb for many years,” the post said. The senior vice president of visitor engagement at Mount Vernon, Rob Shenk, said the estate lost many trees to the sweeping winds which swept through the Washington region on Friday but the Canadian hemlock planted by Washington was probably the most noteworthy. Source :- yahoonews

Ohio Gov. John Kasich commended young Americans for demanding that their elected officials take decisive actions to reduce gun violence in the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Kasich, who unsuccessfully campaigned for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday morning that he thinks youths are tired of hearing excuses for the gridlock in Washington on this issue. “Young people — the millennials, the Gen Xers — are saying, ‘Look, we’ve heard enough. Deliver something. Deliver something. We don’t want all these excuses. Deliver something,’” he said on “State of the Union.” Kasich, 65, a baby boomer, said younger generations have little patience when someone — even Kasich himself — responds to their pleas for gun reform with long-winded explanations about the complexities of American politics. Source :- yahoonews

Social studies teacher Dayanna Volitich is suspended from a Florida middle school after it was revealed that she reportedly secretly hosted a podcast embracing white supremacist ideas.Watch "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt," providing reports and analysis of the day's most newsworthy national and international events. Source :- yahoonews

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) announced on Monday that he will be resigning from the Senate because of health issues.  “I regret my health has become an ongoing challenge,” Cochran said in a statement. “I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the U.S. Senate.” Cochran, who has been battling health problems for quite some time, is not up for re-election this year. The seven-term Republican was absent from the Senate late last year as he recovered from urinary tract infections. Cochran denied that he was physically unfit for office, CNN reported at the time. But his resignation could help the political fortunes of his colleague, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). Source :- yahoonews

Updated at 6:02 p.m. ET Citing his ailing health, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., announced he will resign on April 1, setting up a special election this November. "I regret my health has become an ongoing challenge," Cochran said in a statement Monday. "I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the U.S. Senate." Cochran, 80, chairs the Appropriations Committee and has been absent from the Senate for long stretches over the past year, and his resignation does not come as a surprise. However, it does mean that both of Mississippi's Senate seats. Source :- yahoonews

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi said Monday he will resign because of health problems — triggering what could be a chaotic special election to fill the seat he has held for a generation. Cochran, who turned 80 in December and has been in poor health, has been a sporadic presence on Capitol Hill in recent months. He stayed home for a month last fall, returning to Washington in October to give Republicans the majority they needed to pass a budget plan. He has since kept a low profile and an aide ever present at his side. "I regret my health has become an ongoing challenge," Cochran said in a statement. "It has been a great honor to serve the people of Mississippi and our country. I've done my best to make decisions in the best interests of our nation, and my beloved state. ... My hope is by making this announcement now, a smooth transition can be ensured so their voice will continue to be heard in Washington, Source :- yaho...

A political action committee has erected a massive billboard message in Pensacola, Florida, calling the National Rifle Association a “terrorist organization.” The message was funded by the Mad Dog PAC, which sponsors billboards across the nation calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment and attacking the nation’s largest gun lobby and select Republican politicians. The PAC is headed by Claude Taylor, a former staff member in Bill Clinton’s White House. “With the GOP majority in the House and in the Senate, the NRA makes impossible any meaningful, common-sense gun reform. That includes background checks and assault weapon bans,” Taylor told the Pensacola News Journal. Taylor said another anti-NRA billboard will go up soon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Source :- yahoonews

A billboard calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment will soon be propped up near his resort Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach. The sign, which says: “Impeachment now, Make America America Again!” will tower over Interstate 95 from March 19 to April 15— about two miles from Trump’s property on East Shannondale Road, according to Mad Dog PAC, the left-wing organization that’s funding the sign. The political action committee is known for installing controversial billboards across the country that target Republican politicians. Recently the organization funded one in Pensacola that read, “The NRA is a terrorist organization.” In a statement to CBS 12, Mad Dog PAC founder Claude Taylor, a former. Source :- nymag

Did billionaire Tom Steyer ever buy those billboards in Times Square arguing for Trump’s impeachment? If he did, they didn’t work — and we’re not sure these billboards are going to have the effect that Mad Dog PAC thinks they will. Gun grabbers calling the NRA a terrorist organization is nothing new and seeing it writ large on billboards doesn’t make it any more shocking or original. We do wonder if there’s some nuance at work here, though: is this one of those “gun owners are great people but the NRA is terrorist group” deals or is the billboard saying that all 5 million NRA members are terrorists? In any case, we imagine President Trump and the NRA appreciate the support. NRA memberships are. Source :- nymag

For many reasons, the March 13 congressional special election in southwest Pennsylvania should be a yawner. Its venue, the 18th Congressional District, has been trending toward the GOP for many years. The Republican incumbent who resigned in December after it transpired that he was encouraging an extramarital lover to get an abortion, Tim Murphy, didn’t even draw a Democratic opponent in 2016 or 2014, and only failed to obtain 60 percent of the vote in the Democratic wave election of 2006. And unlike previous Trump-era special elections in historically strong Republican jurisdictions, there’s no obvious asterisk making this one perilous for the GOP. Last year’s big House special election, in Georgia’s Sixth, was in a district full of highly educated suburbanites that only went for Donald Trump by a single point. Trump carried Pennsylvania’s 18th District by 19 points. And in 2017’s other big Democratic upset, the special Senate election in Alabama, Republicans were yoked to a wildly co...

President Trump revealed a little more about his trade-war strategy (such as it is) Monday morning, threatening to saddle Canada and Mexico with the punitive steel and aluminum tariffs he ordered last week until the countries take steps on NAFTA and drug trafficking. There had been a question of whether Trump would exempt allies from the restrictions, which consist of a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, and are likely to be put into effect this week. But comments by hard-line adviser Peter Navarro over the weekend had seemed to rule out leaving any country off the list. Canada is the U.S.’s second-biggest trading partner, after China. Mexico is the third-biggest. Source :- nymag

Onetime Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg called into several cable news shows and spoke to multiple newspaper reporters Monday to announce — for reasons unclear — that he would prefer to be arrested than testify on Friday before a grand jury assembled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Then after a string of bizarre appearances, Nunberg suggested he might be willing to cooperate after all. The Nunberg drama started with a Washington Post interview in which he invited Mueller to arrest him. Next he called in to MSNBC’s Katy Tur, where he made a number of breathtaking statements. Source :- nymag

It’s hardly a big surprise that the very senior U.S. senator from Mississippi, Thad Cochran, has announced his resignation from the Upper Chamber, effective April 1, after 40 years in the Senate and 46 years in Congress. He’s been in shaky physical and psychological health for a good while now, and may have been postponing his retirement to get another cycle of federal spending under his belt as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Cochran (or his handlers) may, however, have also been playing some Mississippi politics, delaying the announcement until after the March 1 qualifying deadline for the 2018 elections. That forced Cochran’s political nemesis, Chris McDaniel, to declare for an uphill primary challenge to Senator Roger Wicker, instead of becoming an instant front-runner in a special election to succeed the old guy he nearly defenestrated in 2014. Whatever his motives, Cochran has put his political ally Governor Phil Bryant firmly into the catbird seat with respect t...

It’s hardly surprising that on arriving in Washington, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would feel grateful toward his host, the president of the United States. After all, Bibi’s in hot water back home thanks to a corruption investigation that may soon bear evil fruit for the longtime leader of the Israeli right. His biggest, er, trump card both domestically and internationally is his close relationship with the leader of the free world. And that relationship was significantly enhanced by the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, at the cost of wildly negative reactions from most of the rest of the world. But still, Netanyahu’s shout-out to Trump in Washington today was more than a bit over-the-top.     I want to tell you that the Jewish people have a long memory. So we remember the proclamation of the great King Cyrus the Great — Persian King. Twenty-five hundred years ago, he proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Ba...

Paul Ryan has been fine with President Trump’s steamrolling of political norms, naked corruption, and hatred of the basic rule of law. But apparently the House Speaker hits his limit when the president starts threatening the stock market. President Trump’s plan for harsh new steel and aluminum tariffs, expected to be finalized later this week, drew fire from Ryan on Monday. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong issued a statement: “We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war and are urging the White House to not advance with this plan. The new tax reform law has boosted the economy and we certainly don’t want to jeopardize those gains.” The Washington Post reported that members of the House Ways and Means Committee were also circulating a letter expressing their opposition to the tariffs. Several GOP lawmakers had expressed their contempt for the policy when Trump announced it last week. Source :- nymag

Bill Cosby and his defense team were at the Montgomery County Courthouse today to oppose the prosecution’s attempts to have as many as 19 women accusing Cosby of sexual assault testify in court. Led into the courthouse by his handlers just one week after the entertainer’s 44-year-old daughter died of kidney disease, Cosby is facing three counts of aggravated indecent assault over allegations that he drugged and sexually abused a former Temple University employee in his Philadelphia home in 2004. The first trial against the 80-year-old ended in a hung jury last June. During today’s pretrial hearing, Judge Steven O’Neill dealt two blows to the defense: scolding them for falsely accusing prosecutors of withholding evidence, and refusing to throw out the felony assault charges. Montgomery County DA Kevin R. Steele also asked that 19 of Cosby’s accusers be allowed to take the stand in April when the second trial is expected to begin. The prosecution has argued that their individual test...

It’s hardly surprising that on arriving in Washington, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would feel grateful toward his host, the president of the United States. After all, Bibi’s in hot water back home thanks to a corruption investigation that may soon bear evil fruit for the longtime leader of the Israeli right. His biggest, er, trump card both domestically and internationally is his close relationship with the leader of the free world. And that relationship was significantly enhanced by the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, at the cost of wildly negative reactions from most of the rest of the world. But still, Netanyahu’s shout-out to Trump in Washington today was more than a bit over-the-top. Source :- nymag

Paul Ryan has been fine with President Trump’s steamrolling of political norms, naked corruption, and hatred of the basic rule of law. But apparently the House Speaker hits his limit when the president starts threatening the stock market. President Trump’s plan for harsh new steel and aluminum tariffs, expected to be finalized later this week, drew fire from Ryan on Monday. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong issued a statement: Source :- nymag

Once virtually the only game in town, OpenTable now faces a slew of online-reservation competitors, from Tock and Resy on the higher end, down to even Yelp for more quotidian spots. It seems OpenTable, or at least one rogue employee, will do whatever it takes to stay on top. Witness a scheme hatched by a Chicago-area OpenTable employee to try to tank the reputation of rival Reserve: The still-anonymous individual, according to Eater Chicago, booked “several hundred” bogus reservations at 45 Chicago restaurants using Reserve in hopes of plaguing the app with no-shows. The employee apparently thought this would be great fodder for his or her pitch to get establishments to switch over to OpenTable (it’s typical for reservation services like these to make restaurants work with them exclusively). Source :- grubstreet

Since getting to Washington, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been busy incorrectly filling out forms, negotiating peace in the Middle East, and trying desperately to lower everyone’s expectations. Still, despite this jam-packed agenda, Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly doesn’t know what exactly it is the couple does all day. According to AP News, Kelly is frustrated by Jared and Ivanka’s “freelancing.” As one source explained, the chief of staff blames them for changing the president’s mind on policies at the last minute, and questions what exactly it is they do. This is not the first report of tensions between Jared and Ivanka and the chief of staff. Last week, Kushner’s security clearance was downgraded during Kelly’s overhaul of White House clearances. Kelly has also reportedly been attempting to formalize lines of communication and decision-making, so as to minimize the couple’s influence on the president, a move Jared and Ivanka allegedly see as a direct attack. Source :...

It’s hardly a big surprise that the very senior U.S. senator from Mississippi, Thad Cochran, has announced his resignation from the Upper Chamber, effective April 1, after 40 years in the Senate and 46 years in Congress. He’s been in shaky physical and psychological health for a good while now, and may have been postponing his retirement to get another cycle of federal spending under his belt as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Cochran (or his handlers) may, however, have also been playing some Mississippi politics, delaying the announcement until after the March 1 qualifying deadline for the 2018 elections. That forced Cochran’s political nemesis, Chris McDaniel, to declare for an uphill primary challenge to Senator Roger Wicker, instead of becoming an instant front-runner in a special election to succeed the old guy he nearly defenestrated in 2014. Source :- nymag

Onetime Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg called into several cable news shows and spoke to multiple newspaper reporters Monday to announce — for reasons unclear — that he would prefer to be arrested than testify on Friday before a grand jury assembled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Then after a string of bizarre appearances, Nunberg suggested he might be willing to cooperate after all. The Nunberg drama started with a Washington Post interview in which he invited Mueller to arrest him. Next he called in to MSNBC’s Katy Tur, where he made a number of breathtaking statements. Source :- nymag

Saturday night, in the middle of a comic speech at the Gridiron Club, President Trump wandered into a completely serious riff about North Korea. “It was headed for disaster and now we’re talking,” he announced. “They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago; they said, ‘We would like to talk,’” Trump said. “And I said, ‘So would we, but you have to denuke.’” The claim that Trump had spoken with North Korea confounded foreign policy observers. “It was not clear whether Trump was describing a direct conversation or messages sent through diplomatic channels,” reported the Washington Post. The answer turns out to be: neither. Trump was describing a conversation with South Korea. An official from the National Security Council tells Yonhap News Agency, a South Korean publication, that Trump “was referring to his March 1 phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.” So Trump was close, geographically, but instead of describing a breakthrough exchange with the totalitarian enemy that...

the House speaker, is “extremely worried” that President Trump’s proposed steel and aluminum tariffs could cause a harmful trade war. Mr. Ryan’s reservations are an unusual act of defiance. The president hasn’t backed down from his tariffs plan, but he raised the prospect that some nations could be spared (by way of pressuring Canada and Mexico on a new Nafta trade treaty). In the Senate, Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican, said he would resign because of ill health, opening up a second Senate race in his home state this November. Source :- nytimes

President Trump’s fixation with America’s widening trade deficit is fueling his decision to impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Only a small group of experts share Mr. Trump’s fixation, and few see tariffs as an effective tool to narrow the so-called trade gap. America’s trade deficit is the gap between how much in goods and services it imports from foreign countries, and how much it exports. Mr. Trump complains about the metric frequently, saying the trade imbalance is a measure of America’s weakness on trade policy. “We lost, over the last number of years, $800 billion a year,” he said in the White House on Monday, while defending his tariffs against criticism from Republican leaders in Congress. “Not a half a million dollars, not 12 cents. We lost $800 billion a year on trade.” He went on to say that the country “lost $500 billion” a year to China, though it was not clear what figure he was citing, given that America’s annual trade deficit with China has never climbe...

Russ Solomon, who pioneered the superstore hangout for music lovers by founding Tower Records and expanded it worldwide before internet pirates and crushing debts rendered the chain obsolete and bankrupt, died on Sunday night at his home in Sacramento. He was 92. His son Michael confirmed the death. A high school dropout who sold used jukebox records at 16 in his father’s drugstore in Sacramento, Mr. Solomon was the driving force behind a sprawling enterprise that began with one store in that city in 1960 and grew into a dominant competitor in music retailing with nearly 200 stores in 15 countries. Sales of recorded music, videos and books eventually topped $1 billion a year. With marketing instincts that even rivals and critics called ingenious, Mr. Solomon built megastores, som Source :- nytimes

Arkansas will be the third state to require many Medicaid recipients to work or train for jobs, after the Trump administration granted it permission on Monday. But the administration held off on approving another request from the state that could have much broader consequences for the future of the program — a proposal to cut back the expansion of Medicaid that was instituted under the Affordable Care Act. Seema Verma, the Trump appointee who oversees Medicaid, did not elaborate when asked twice about the delay at a news conference with Gov. Asa Hutchinson in Little Rock. She said only: “We are still working through some issues in that particular area.” She and Mr. Hutchinson, a Republican, sought instead to emphasize the momentum that work requirements have gathered in the two months since Ms. Verma issued guidance to states allowing them to insist that many people work or prepare for jobs as a condition of keeping their Medicaid coverage. Ms. Verma said eight additional states had su...

Hundreds of thousands of people remained without electricity on Sunday, after a fierce storm swept through much of the eastern United States on Friday. Some utility companies told customers that power may not be restored until later this week, around the time another storm could strike the region. At least eight people died after heavy snow, winds and rain tore through the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic on Friday. Trains were halted, planes delayed and roads closed. At its peak, more than two million people were affected by power losses, from South Carolina to Michigan to Maine, the United States Department of Energy reported. The potential exists for another nor’easter to move in, probably Wednesday into Thursday, Marc Chenard, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service’s prediction center, said in a phone interview on Sunday. He said this storm could be less powerful, and was unlikely to match the strong winds that toppled so many trees on Friday. “The snow may end up being th...

Every few weeks or months, after a man armed with a high-powered weapon walks into a school or a church or a nightclub and opens fire, the national response plays out in a rote, almost performative way. The outcry lasts only a few days before guns fade back into the background noise of American politics. But nearly three weeks after a gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and killed 17 people with an AR-15, the conversation has not faded, because the students of Stoneman Douglas have taken up the cause of gun control. Already, they have lobbied state lawmakers in Tallahassee, spoken with President Trump and persuaded many companies to cut ties with the National Rifle Association. And on Saturday, they met with students fighting gun violence in Chicago. Source :- nytimes

Maple syrup gumming up the gun belt isn’t normally a hazard of police work. But it is a common problem for Cpl. Pamela Revels when students have been eating pancakes at the school breakfast. “Kids like to come up and give you a little bit of a hug,” Corporal Revels said. “They don’t wipe their hands that well.” Ms. Revels freely dispenses hugs and smiles at the schools where she works around Auburn, Ala. But she is also a sheriff’s deputy who wears a sidearm and a bulletproof vest, drives an official S.U.V. and has an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle stored nearby. On Thursday afternoon, when a report came in about a man in camouflage carrying a gun near school, she sprang into action. As worried students and teachers locked themselves in classrooms and closets, she bolted outdoors, hurriedly walked around the sprawling campus and scanned the nearby woods until she was satisfied that it was safe for everyone to emerge. March 5, 2018 Source :- nytimes

Trump Reaffirms Commitment to Tariffs but Opens Door to Compromise Image President Trump is eager to impose tariffs, and was reassured his decision was right by Monday’s stock market rebound, a person close to the White House said.CreditAl Drago for The New York Times By Ana Swanson, Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman Source :- nytimes

The Florida State Senate shocked even itself on Saturday when it voted to approve a two-year moratorium on sales of AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, going far beyond the gun-related measures that Republican legislative leaders said they would consider. Tellingly, though, that two-year moratorium lasted only 15 minutes. It had been approved by a voice vote, and opponents quickly insisted on reconsidering it, this time with a roll call to formally record how each senator voted. Evidently that turned some of the ayes heard by the Senate president into nays, because the proposal was defeated, 21 to 17. The moratorium episode — the closest that Florida’s Democratic gun-control proponents have come to success after a Feb. 14 shooting rampage, at a high school in Parkland, left 17 people dead — illustrates why it is so difficult to pass firearm restrictions in the State Legislature: When it comes to backing a significant change, even a popular one, the votes just aren’t there. Source :- nytimes

Before Ben Carson accepted President Trump’s offer to become secretary of housing and urban development, a friend implored him to turn down the job to preserve the reputation he had earned as a brilliant neurosurgeon and lost, in part, as a politician. The confidant, Logan Delany Jr., who was the treasurer of Mr. Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign, described HUD as a “swamp” of “corruption.” He predicted in an email that Mr. Carson’s “lack of a background in housing” would make him prey to the department’s career staff and political appointees, as well as predatory lobbyists. To drive home the point, Mr. Delany appended a link to an obituary of Samuel R. Pierce Jr., the Reagan-era HUD secretary whose reputation as a trailblazing black corporate lawyer was tarnished by accusations that he steered contracts to Republican cronies. Source :- nytimes

One of the big questions facing Florida lawmakers after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is whether schoolteachers ought to be allowed to carry weapons. Gov. Rick Scott argues that schools would not be safer with armed teachers. His fellow Republicans in the legislature, however, appear much more open to the idea. After a debate on the State Senate floor on Monday, Republican legislative leaders struck a compromise that would keep guns away from teachers, but keep guns in schools. How? By arming librarians, counselors and coaches. The Senate agreed to exempt only teachers who work full-time in the classroom from having weapons on campus. Everyone else — no matter how closely they also deal with students — could be eligible to carry. Source :- nytimes

Amanda Thomashow, a recent graduate of Michigan State University, made up her mind in April 2014. She was going to report Lawrence G. Nassar, a prominent doctor who treated star gymnasts. He had sexually assaulted her during a medical exam weeks before, she soon told a campus police officer, who listened and took notes for close to an hour. The police eventually delivered the results of their investigation to the office of Stuart Dunnings III, the longtime prosecuting attorney in Ingham County, Mich. On three separate occasions, the university’s police force said, they asked Mr. Dunnings’s office to bring charges of criminal sexual conduct against Dr. Nassar in Ms. Thomashow’s case. And three times, they said, their request was denied. Source :- nytimes

Onetime Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg called into several cable news shows and spoke to multiple newspaper reporters Monday to announce — for reasons unclear — that he would prefer to be arrested than testify on Friday before a grand jury assembled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Then after a string of bizarre appearances, Nunberg suggested he might be willing to cooperate after all. The Nunberg drama started with a Washington Post interview in which he invited Mueller to arrest him. Next he called in to MSNBC’s Katy Tur, where he made a number of breathtaking statements. Source :- nymag

WASHINGTON — It began with a subpoena. It ended with a question about whether its recipient was drunk on live television. Sam Nunberg, a onetime Trump campaign aide who recently met with investigators for the special counsel, set cable news alight on Monday when he declared that he was subpoenaed to go before a grand jury on Friday, but that he was unlikely to appear or to provide documents he was ordered to hand over. He indicated he did not know what the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was seeking by ordering him to appear before the grand jury and to turn over a number of documents. There was no way to authenticate the subpoena; Mr. Mueller’s office declined to comment. But Mr. Nunberg said he was unconcerned about the potential for being arrested. By midafternoon, he had been interviewed on MSNBC and CNN. Fox News soon joined in with coverage Source :-  nytimes

This article has been updated to include the fact that the subpoena was received by Sam Nunberg, a former Trump campaign adviser. WASHINGTON — The grand jury investigating alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign has sent a witness a subpoena seeking all documents involving the president and a host of his closest advisers, according to a copy of the subpoena received by former adviser Sam Nunberg and reviewed by NBC News. According to the subpoena, which was sent to Nunberg by special counsel Robert Mueller, investigators want emails, text messages, work papers, telephone logs and other documents going back to Nov. 1, 2015, 4½ months after Trump launched his campaign. Source :- nbcnews

SPN's former anchor and legal analyst Adrienne Lawrence filed a bombshell sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filled with lurid allegations against the network this past weekend. “ESPN is, and always has been, a company rife with misogyny,” states the first line of the complaint, according to the Connecticut Law Tribune. WARNING: GRAPHIC ALLEGATIONS BELOW According to the suit, male executives and talent at ESPN “keep ‘scoreboards’ naming female colleagues they are targeting for sex.” It also alleges that men openly watch porn on their computers, and made comments in Lawrence’s presence like wondering what the singer Rihanna must “taste like,” The New York Post reported. Source :- abcnews