The International
Paris - Countries around the world mobilized Thursday for International Women's Day with Spaniards on an unprecedented strike, France threatening to "name and shame" firms that pay women less and Iraqi women running a shortened 'marathon'.
The #MeToo and #Timesup campaigns that went global with allegations of sexual misconduct in Hollywood galvanized this year's celebrations amid surging demand from women for respect and equality.
Hundreds of trains were canceled in Spain over the work stoppage and countless protests in defense of women's rights held across the country. Ten unions demanded gender equality as the 24-hour strike sought to emulate Iceland's 1975 work stoppage, when women took a day off to demonstrate their vital contribution to the economy and society.
Female television and radio presenters went off air, and Spain's state TVE channel ran repeat programs to compensate. Police said 200,000 people rallied for womens' rights in Barcelona.
Spain's two main unions, however, refused to join the 24-hour strike and called on their members to stop work for just two hours. Some 5.3 million people took part, they said.
In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to "name and shame" companies that pay women less than men for the same work. French daily Liberation found a novel way to get a man's attention by hiking the paper's cost by 25 percent for all males. French women earn on average 25.7 percent less than men, according to a 2017 watchdog report.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel put out a video saying women should not rest on their laurels.
"The fight for equal rights continues," she said. Much remained to be done "so that women have the same rights as well as the same duties as men... we will get there."
In Iraq's second city Mosul, 300 women ran a symbolic marathon of 900 meters down the main street.
"With this marathon we want to give women their place back after being kept at a distance for a long time," said organizer Fatima Khalaf.
Some of the women carried placards saying "I have the right to speak freely".
Thousands of women thronged central Istanbul chanted slogans including: "We are not silent, we are not scared, we are not obeying" and "Women are strong together".
Female activists have long accused the Islamic-rooted government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of not doing enough to stop violence against women.
In Cairo, the Egyptian museum put on display three artefacts to highlight the role of women in antiquity. They include a red stone head of Nefertiti, the queen who held a key political and religious role alongside her husband the Pharaoh Akhenaten 3,300 years ago.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle celebrated the day by encouraging young female students to pursue careers in subjects such as science and maths.
Meanwhile BBC staff gathered outside its London hub to demand equal pay.
Journalists including Carrie Gracie, who resigned as its China editor earlier this year over pay inequalities, stood holding sheets of paper displaying equal signs as they chanted "equal pay for equal work".
In Pristina, three red billboards like those in the Oscar-winning movie "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," were placed outside the Kosovo police headquarters.
"How many more missed calls?" read the first, followed by the names of two women-Diana Kastrati and Zejnepe Bytyqi-who were killed by their husbands.
Kosovo's Haveit Group created the banners to criticise the police system, which failed to respond in time to save the victims.
The New York Times meanwhile published obituaries of 'overlooked' women including novelist Charlotte Bronte who died in 1855, poet Sylvia Plath who died in 1963 and photographer Diane Arbus who died in 1971.
The newspaper said that in looking back at its archives it found that the "vast majority" of obituaries over the years "chronicled the lives of men, mostly white ones."
In a timely announcement, the EU police agency Europol named Belgium's Catherine De Bolle as its first female head.
Bolle hailed her gender's advances in the workplace but said many women still chose family over careers.
"When I started six or seven years ago in my position as commissioner general, I thought the glass ceiling is broken now. But it wasn't true," she said.
With #internationalwomensday2018, trending worldwide, a new report called "An End to Manels", or all-male panels, found female speakers are outnumbered by men by three to one at Europe's top international meetings.
The survey of world leaders and businesspeople addressing top conferences over the last five years shows a "huge gender gap" with 74 percent of speakers male, the Open Society Foundations group said.
Gloomier still, the UN labour agency warned that gradual progress toward parity between the sexes in the workplace was expected to soon grind to a halt and could even reverse.
"On average around the world, women remain much less likely to participate in the labour market than men," the International Labour Organization (ILO) said.
Today, 48.5 percent of women and girls over the age of 15 are part of the global workforce-26.5 percentage points below the rate of male participation, the report found.
Thus, for every 10 men in a job globally, only six women are employed, it said.
At the Geneva Motor Show "booth babes" have almost disappeared this year in a notable change as manufacturers try to clean up their image.
The recent trend seems to have gained significant steam in a world reeling from revelations of sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination across all industries.
Meanwhile, Iran's top legal authority reportedly wants to prosecute the organizers of a party in Tehran City Hall to mark Iranian Women's Day on Tuesday.
Islamic law in Iran prohibits public dancing.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
London - Britain vowed Thursday to act "without hesitation" if a state is found responsible for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent, as police said 21 people in total had received medical treatment following the incident.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain unconscious in a critical but stable condition following the attack on Sunday in the sleepy south-western English city of Salisbury.
Sergeant Nick Bailey, one of first officers to find the pair slumped on a bench outside a shopping center and who was later hospitalized in intensive care, was sitting up and talking on Thursday, according to police.
"There's been around 21 people (treated)," said Kier Pritchard, chief constable for Wiltshire Police, noting that included "multiple officers".
"A number of those have been through the hospital treatment process, they're having blood tests, they're having treatment in terms of support and advice," he added.
Pritchard said he had spoken to Bailey and his wife in hospital, adding that "he's well, he's sat up" but was "very anxious".
Authorities are racing to identify the nerve agent used against the 66-year-old Skripal, who came to Britain in a spy swap in 2010, as politicians warned it showed the hallmarks of an attack by Russia.
Interior minister Amber Rudd told MPs that the "brazen and reckless" attack was "attempted murder in the most cruel and public way" but declined to single any perpetrator out.
Noting it was "highly likely" that the officer, Bailey, was exposed to the same nerve agent as the Russian pair, she said Britain "will act without hesitation as the facts become clearer".
The Russian embassy in London, which earlier in the week criticized Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for blaming Moscow, welcomed Rudd's "responsible practical approach".
Prime Minister Theresa May said that "if action needs to be taken then the government will do that", but urged "time and space" for the police to conduct their investigation.
National counter-terrorism police have taken over the case, and on Wednesday confirmed that a nerve agent was used, adding they were treating the attack as attempted murder.
"Scientific tests by government experts have identified the specific nerve agent used which will help identify the source," they said.
Police have cordoned off the bench where the pair were found, as well as an Italian restaurant and a pub they visited before their collapse.
They also sealed off the grave of Skripal's wife, Liudmila, who died in 2012 from cancer, as well as the memorial stone of his son, Alexander, who was cremated last year after reportedly dying of liver problems.
As officers in biohazard suits worked inside secure tents, residents expressed shock at the attack in their midst.
"You could be walking by and you could be involved in it, you know, it's quite shocking and worrying," Salisbury local Jackie Tothill told AFP.
The Times reported that police are probing whether Skripal's daughter, who arrived in Britain from Moscow last week, may have inadvertently brought in the nerve agent as a gift.
Foreign Secretary Johnson has noted the "echoes" with the 2006 poisoning in London of former Russian spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, which Britain has blamed on Russia.
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said Thursday that Russia was "becoming an ever-greater threat".
Fellow Conservative MP Nick Boles tweeted that "I do not see how we can maintain diplomatic relations with a country that tries to murder people on British soil".
Moscow accused British politicians and journalists of whipping up anti-Russian sentiment.
Kremlin foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters the story "was straight away used to boost an anti-Russian campaign in the media".
The embassy added Thursday that when other Russians had died in Britain in suspicious circumstances, the authorities never released the findings, adding: "Same happening now."
It cited Boris Berezovsky, a friend of Litvinenko found hanging in his bathroom in 2013, and Alexander Perepilichny, a businessman found dead in front of his home. No cause of death was determined in either case.
Skripal was a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was jailed in his country for betraying agents to Britain's MI6 secret service.
He was pardoned before being flown to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap involving Russia and the United States in 2010.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Addis Ababa - Washington's top diplomat began his first Africa tour Thursday by meeting with the African Union chief, who said the continent had moved on from a reported insult by President Donald Trump.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and AU commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed security and counter-terrorism, trade and development, corruption and conflict in an hour-long meeting at the continental body's headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
But looming over the meeting was Trump's alleged description of African nations as "shithole countries" in January, which forced the president to pen a letter reaffirming his commitment to the continent.
Faki, however, insisted the slur was now in the past.
"I received a letter written by President Trump to myself and I shared that with other African leaders. I believe this incident is of the past," he said.
Tillerson's five-nation Africa tour - to include Djibouti, Kenya, Chad and Nigeria, all key allies in fighting Islamic extremism - has been described as a "listening tour", with no deals or initiatives due to be announced.
"The purpose of my trip is to listen to what the priorities of the countries here on the continent are and see where there is good alignment," said Tillerson.
The diplomat met Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu as well as Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who resigned earlier this month amid a political crisis in Africa's fastest growing economy.
Tillerson urged Ethiopia to move on from a state of emergency "as quickly as possible" and called for citizens in the tightly-run country to be given "greater freedoms".
Analysts highlight the choice of countries visited by Tillerson as a sign of the United States' focus on security issues on the continent.
Chad, Kenya and Nigeria are all battling Islamic extremism, with help from the United States, while Djibouti hosts the only permanent US military base on the continent.
Tillerson and Faki discussed continued US support to African counter-terrorism forces in the Sahel and Somalia but no new concrete commitments were given.
"We have not yet won that battle in Somalia and we must stay at it," Tillerson said.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Washington - US President Donald Trump slapped contentious trade tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum Thursday, swatting aside warnings of a global trade war and protests from allies in Europe and at home.
Signalling a sharp departure from a decades-long US-led drive for more open and less regulated trade, Trump declared that America had been "ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices."
"It's really an assault on our country," he said, in announcing the tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum.
Trump said the tariffs - which will come into effect after 15 days - will not initially apply to Canada and Mexico, and that close partners on security and trade could negotiate exemptions.
"Many of the countries that treat us the worst on trade and on the military are our allies, as they call them," he complained.
The tariffs, worth billions of dollars, could spark retaliatory sanctions from the European Union, China and other economic powers.
Leaning on a little-used and decades old national security clause in US trade law, Trump said he was fulfilling a campaign promise.
"I've been talking about this a long time, a lot longer than my political career," he said. "We've been treated very badly by our past administrations, by presidents that represented us that didn't know what they were doing."
The mercurial 45th president compared his action to those of predecessors George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley.
More than 50 percent of steel and aluminum exports come from allies in the European Union, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. But countries from Brazil to South Africa are likely to be affected.
The metals are used in everything from cars to construction, roads to railways.
Trump had indicated he would be flexible toward "real friends," and during the signing confirmed that Canada and Mexico would be permanently exempted if the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement is successful.
The US leader had earlier added Australia to a list of likely carve-outs. "We have a trade surplus with Australia, great country, long term partner, we'll be doing something with them."
But he singled out Germany for criticism, reviving a longstanding gripe that European NATO allies do not pay their fair share.
"We have some friends and some enemies where we have been tremendously taken advantage of over the years on trade and on military," he said.
"If you look at NATO, where Germany pays one percent and we are paying 4.2 percent of a much bigger GDP - that's not fair."
Last week Trump stunned the world - and his own aides - with an off-the-cuff announcement of his plan, even before White House lawyers judged the legality of the tariffs and before it was clear which countries would be targeted.
While the economic impact remains unclear, the political fallout was swift with the top Republican in the US Congress, Paul Ryan, publicly denouncing Trump's move.
"I disagree with this action and fear its unintended consequences," the speaker of the House said in a statement, vowing to push the administration to narrow the policy's focus to "those countries and practices that violate trade law."
More than 100 Republican lawmakers had written to Trump expressing "deep concern" about a policy they said could undermine economic gains from the president's own tax reforms.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Bogota - Colombia's FARC said Thursday it is pulling out of the country's presidential race after its candidate, 59-year-old ex-guerrilla leader Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono, suffered a heart attack.
Ivan Marquez, a senate candidate and senior member of the political party formed by the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels, told reporters that party members decided not to field a candidate after Londono underwent open heart surgery on Wednesday.
Since the peace deal struck with the government of outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos in late 2016, the FARC gave up its half-century armed struggle and became a political party keeping the same acronym.
Colombia's presidential election is scheduled for May 27, with a possible runoff vote set for mid-June.
Surveys showed that Londono - candidate for the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force - had just one percent voter support.
Marquez however said his party is not dropping out of the legislative elections set for Sunday.
Under the peace accord the former rebels are guaranteed at least 10 of the 268 congressional seats up for grabs in the March 11 election. They can gain more, but they must campaign for them.
Londono suffered a heart attack last week at the end of his daily exercise routine. He has had serious health scares before: in 2015 he had a heart attack in Cuba while negotiating the peace deal, and in July 2017 he suffered a minor stroke.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Miami - The US state of Florida, scene of America's latest school shooting, on Wednesday passed bill that raises the minimum age to buy firearms to 21 while funding a program that allows some teachers and school employees to be armed.
The "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act," which takes its name from last month's mass shooting in which 17 people including 14 students were killed, passed the legislature's lower house a day after clearing the senate. It will now be sent to Governor Rick Scott to sign.
The Republican has not indicated whether he would veto the law, but he has previously expressed opposition to US President Donald Trump's call to arm teachers.
America's long moribund gun control debate was revived by survivors of the Parkland shooting, who a day after their school was attacked launched the "Never Again" movement demanding legislative action.
The bill raises the minimum age to purchase all firearms from 18 to 21 - a move opposed by the powerful National Rifle Association lobby group - bans modification devices that make a semi-automatic weapon fully automatic, and increases mental health funding.
It also includes a voluntary "guardian program" named after Coach Aaron Feis who was slain in the Parkland attack, which is intended to "aid in the prevention or abatement of active assailant incidents on school premises" by allowing some school employees to be armed.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Dubai, United Arab Emirates - The widow of an Iranian-Canadian university professor who died under disputed circumstances in a Tehran prison has been stopped from traveling abroad, Canada's foreign affairs minister said Thursday.
The death of Kavous Seyed- Emami in February sparked new anger in Iran over the treatment of detainees, especially after nearly 5,000 people were arrested in the wake of nationwide protests at the start of the year.
Seyed-Emami's family say they warned against speaking out over the professor's death, but his son Ramin, a popular singer known by the stage name King Raam, did anyway.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Miami - The San Francisco Bay area's Silicon Valley is home to a plethora of wealthy tech companies, but the sinking land beneath risks leading to far worse floods in the years to come, researchers said Wednesday.
This sinking, or subsidence, coupled with sea level rise, doubles the territory in the area known as Silicon Valley at risk of flooding by 2100, said the report in the journal Science Advances.
Until now, official government flood maps and projections have been based solely on estimates of sea level rise.
"The ground goes down, sea level comes up, and flood waters go much farther inland than either change would produce by itself," said lead author Manoochehr Shirzaei, assistant professor in Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Most of the San Francisco Bay shoreline is sinking by less than two millimeters a year, but "in several areas we discovered subsidence rates of 10 millimeters (half an inch) a year and more," said the study.
At particular risk are structures built mostly on landfill, such as the San Francisco International Airport which handles more than 200,000 annual landings and sees 56 million passengers passing through each year.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Warsaw - Poland's president on Thursday apologized to Jews chased out of the country 50 years ago during the communist regime's anti-Semitic campaign, as Warsaw faces criticism over its new Holocaust law.
"The free and independent Poland of today, my generation, is not responsible and does not need to apologize. But... to those who were driven out then... I'd like to say please forgive the Republic, Poles, the Poland of that time for having carried out such a shameful act," Andrzej Duda said.
The 50th anniversary of the anti- Semitic campaign, which caused at least 12,000 Jews to leave Poland, amid heightened tensions with Israel over Warsaw's new controversial Holocaust law.
Meant to defend Poland's wartime image abroad, the law sets fines or up to three years in jail for anyone who notably ascribes Nazi German crimes to Poland.
But Israel sees it as a bid to deny that certain Poles participated in the genocide of Jews during World War II, while the US has also expressed concern over freedom of speech.
Duda delivered his apology at the University of Warsaw 50 years to the day after a student revolt there was crushed by baton-wielding police and later used as an excuse for the regime to unleash its racist campaign.
"What a shame, what a loss for the Polish Republic today that those who left - and some who are maybe dead because of 1968 - are not here with us today, that you are an intellectual elite but in foreign countries, that you are successful people but elsewhere, that your work, your research, your magnificent achievements are not credited to Poland," Duda said. "What a shame, I am so sorry."
He recalled that Polish Jews took part in the country's fight for independence a century ago and later defended it in 1920 against the Soviets and in 1939 against the Nazi Germans.
A couple hundred people attended the speech to protest against the rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) government and its various controversial actions since coming to power in late 2015.
Chanting "shame" and "constitution", the protesters were notably upset over myriad court reforms introduced by the PiS that critics at home and abroad believe threaten the separation of powers.
Duda's speech struck a different note than that of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday, who had stressed that Poland was not an independent country in 1968 and thus could not be held responsible for the communist anti-Semitic campaign.
He had said Poles should be "proud" of their revolt against the communist regime instead of "being ashamed" of March 1968.
Before showing up at the university, Duda visited the train station in Warsaw where Jews boarded to leave Poland half a century ago. He laid a wreath and met with representatives of the Jewish community.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Copenhagen - Danish inventor Peter Madsen on Thursday denied murdering Swedish journalist Kim Wall aboard his self-built submarine, saying she died when the air pressure suddenly dropped and toxic fumes filled the vessel.
But the prosecution painted a picture of a sexual sadist obsessed with beheadings who murdered her as part of a sexual fantasy.
Madsen, who has previously admitted dismembering Wall's body and throwing her remains overboard, told the Copenhagen district court on the first day of his trial that the air pressure suddenly dropped in the engine room, where the 30-year-old freelance reporter was located while he was up on deck.
Pleading not guilty to premeditated murder, he admitted he had lied to investigators and changed his account of what actually happened to Wall several times.
"I wanted to spare her family and the world the details ... about what actually happened when she died, because it is gruesome."
He said a vacuum effect meant he was unable to open the hatch to get in to Wall, who was screaming for help.
"I try to explain to Kim through the hatch how to stop the necessary engines, for 5 to 15 minutes I try to get in to her," Madsen said.
"When I finally manage to open the hatch, a warm cloud hits my face. I find her lifeless on the floor, and I squat next to her and try to wake her up, slapping her cheeks."
He said he sailed around for a few hours, contemplating suicide, and then slept next to Wall's body for two hours.
Wall was reported missing by her boyfriend after she failed to return home from her trip on the 60-foot (18-meter) vessel on August 10.
That evening, the couple were having a going-away party ahead of their planned move to China a few days later.
But Madsen, an eccentric semi-celebrity in Denmark who dreamed of developing private space travel and whom Wall had been trying to interview, contacted her and invited her out to the sub.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Berlin - Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas will take over as foreign minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel's next government, media reported Thursday.
The 51-year-old Social Democrat is to be officially designated by his center-left party on Friday to succeed party colleague Sigmar Gabriel, reported national news agency DPA and news weeklies Der Spiegel and Focus.
Gabriel himself had announced that the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had decided that he would not have a ministerial post in Merkel's fourth-term government to be launched next Wednesday.
If the reports are confirmed, Mass "will do an excellent job," said Gabriel, the current head of German diplomacy, at a press conference.
Maas has no particular diplomatic experience but has earned a solid reputation in the past four years as justice and consumer affairs minister.
He is known as an outspoken critic of the far right and online hate speech and has forced Internet giants to take down incendiary posts that breach German laws, with the threat of heavy fines.
Merkel's next cabinet will include five more SPD ministers under a coalition deal that ended six months of political stalemate following inconclusive elections last September 24.
German media have also reported that the post of finance minister and vice chancellor will go to Olaf Scholz, the SPD mayor of the city-state of Hamburg.
Merkel drew much criticism from within her Christian Democrats for handing the SPD the finance portfolio, traditionally the preserve of her conservatives.
But most observers expect Scholz, a no-nonsense centrist within the SPD, to maintain fiscal rigour and a tight grip on public finances like his predecessor Wolfgang Schaeuble.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Brussels - The European Union launched legal action against Britain on Thursday to recover 2.7 billion euros ($3.3bn) in lost customs duties after London allegedly ignored a scam by Chinese importers.
The bloc's fraud watchdog said last year that Britain turned a blind eye to the rampant use of fake invoices and customs claims by Chinese importers for textiles and footwear.
The launch of the so-called infringement action threatens to inflame tense negotiations between Britain and the EU on their trade and customs relations after Brexit next year.
"Today, the European Commission decided to send a letter of formal notice to the United Kingdom because it refuses to make customs duties available to the EU budget, as required by EU law," the commission said in a statement.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Paris - Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo promised Thursday to get the city's bike-sharing service back on track by May after a change of operator brought the popular system to a near standstill.
The change in functioning of the pioneering 10-year-old Velib system has turned into a fiasco, with just 330 of more than 1,400 docking stations currently operational, Hidalgo told France Inter radio.
"I completely agree, this is not working," she said. "I'm turning up the pressure, there will be very heavy penalties (for the new operator), already more than one million euros ($1.2 million) a month."
Asked when exasperated users would finally have a fully operational system, she said, "I think it will be for the spring, end of April or early May."
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Hammuriyeh, Syria - Syrian forces pursued a relentless air and ground offensive against Eastern Ghouta on Thursday, moving closer to retaking the rebel enclave but also depriving desperate civilians of vital aid.
More than 900 civilians have been killed in the nearly three-week assault on the last rebel enclave outside the capital, where dozens suffered overnight from a suspected chlorine attack.
On another front in Syria's complex seven-year war, pro-Turkey rebels seized control of the key northern town of Jandairis from Kurdish fighters.
Russia-backed government forces have retaken more than half of Eastern Ghouta, a monitor says, since launching their devastating offensive on the enclave on February 18.
The fighting has prompted international outrage, culminating in the UN Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire, aid deliveries and evacuations.
On Thursday, air strikes and rocket fire on the towns of Zamalka and Sabqa killed at least 13 civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
An aid delivery planned for Thursday was meant to bring relief to war-weary civilians inside Eastern Ghouta, which is home to 400,000 inhabitants who have been living under government siege since 2013.
But with bombardment continuing, the joint convoy between the United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Syrian Arab Red Crescent could not go through.
"The movement of the convoy was not authorized by the Syrian authorities due to security reasons," said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN's humanitarian coordination office (OCHA).
It marks the second time this week aid operations have been disrupted by military developments, with food deliveries cut short Monday due to bombardment.
Eastern Ghouta towns and villages have fallen in quick succession in recent days, with regime forces on the verge of cutting the remaining rebel-held territory into two isolated pockets.
A military official said the regime would open up a new "humanitarian corridor" for civilians wishing to flee from the south of the enclave.
But Moscow accused the rebels of having attacked two Syrian army checkpoints, causing casualties and further holding up aid deliveries. They were "doing everything possible to prevent residents from leaving", it said in a statement.
Dozens of civilians were treated in the town of Hammuriyeh for breathing difficulties late Wednesday, with medics reporting symptoms consistent with a toxic attack.
Doctors at one facility treated at least 29 patients with signs of exposure to chlorine, according to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which supports hospitals in Eastern Ghouta.
It said victims were suffering from shortness of breath, wheezing, and redness of the eyes.
Several families were seen trying to reach fresh air late Wednesday on the roof of a four-storey building in Hammuriyeh, after air strikes on their neighbourhood.
"I'm going to suffocate," two children screamed as rescue workers carried them down from the roof.
Regime forces have been repeatedly accused of using chlorine on Eastern Ghouta in recent weeks, which both the government and Russia have staunchly denied.
Syria's war has killed more than 340,000 people and displaced millions since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
It has since spiralled into a complex conflict involving world powers.
Since January 20, Turkey-led rebels have pressed an assault on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in the north of the country.
On Thursday, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels seized the town of Jandairis, the Observatory said.
"Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels took full control of Jandairis... after heavy and sustained bombardment by the Turkish aviation," it said.
A rebel commander from the Turkey-backed Faylaq al-Sham group told an AFP reporter in Jandairis the town was under full control.
"The entire city of Jandairis was liberated from the secessionist gangs," said the commander, who goes by the name Abu Saleh.
"The fight will continue until the whole of Afrin is cleared of them."
Turkey says the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) who control the enclave are a "terrorist" group.
But the Kurdish militia have also formed the backbone of a US-backed alliance that has successfully fought the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria.
The UN Security Council on February 24 demanded a 30-day cessation of hostilities across the country, but the resolution has done little to bring relief to civilians.
The UN's top body met behind closed doors on Wednesday in an attempt to shore up the ceasefire.
UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura briefed the meeting and offered to help broker a deal with Russia to allow fighters in Eastern Ghouta to leave, a diplomat said.
Rebel groups operating in Eastern Ghouta have so far refused to discuss evacuating the enclave and have been firing rockets and artillery into eastern areas of Damascus in recent weeks, leaving at least 32 dead the Observatory says.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
United Nations - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday went to the United Nations to open an exhibit on Jerusalem, sending a message of defiance after the world body rejected US recognition of the city as Israel's capital.
The exhibit of artifacts on Jews in Jerusalem "represents the truth" about the city that "is being denied by those seeking to erase the history of our people," Netanyahu said.
"We are changing Israel's position in the world and above all, we are making it clear that we fight for the truth and our rights," he said.
The prime minister's remarks followed a vote in the General Assembly in December to reject US recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and urge all countries to refrain from following the United States's lead and move their embassies to the city.
President Donald Trump's decision broke with the international consensus that the status of the Holy City is to be resolved in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The move infuriated the Palestinians, who see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and are now pushing for broader international mediation to replace the US-led peace process.
The exhibit set up in a UN hallway featured a sign posted by the United Nations stating that the content of the exhibit does not reflect the UN's view.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this was standard practice for all exhibits at the United Nations.
After touring the exhibit, Netanyahu pointed to the UN disclaimer saying "of course it doesn't represent the United Nations. It represents the truth."
The prime minister earlier met with US Ambassador Nikki Haley, a strong supporter of Israel at the United Nations, and with US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin while in New York.
In Washington, he met with Trump and was cheered at a conference of the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby even as he faced corruption allegations at home.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Doha - Migrant laborers in Qatar have worked up to 148 days in a row, a report into conditions faced by workers building stadiums for the 2022 football World Cup has found.
A London-based consultancy firm, Impactt, said long working hours remained a problem for many of the 18,500 workers at projects overseen by Qatar's World Cup organizers, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy.
Impactt - contracted by the Supreme Committee to carry out an annual labor review - said 13 out of 19 World Cup contractors were overworking their employees.
"At eight of 19 contractors, these non- compliances were critical, as working hours exceeded 72 per week and overtime exceeded two hours per day," Impactt said in its report.
"The most extreme case found was 14 hours within a day... (and) 402 hours within a month."
It added: "Additional non-compliances include eight contractors where workers worked an excessive number of consecutive days without a rest day.
"The most extreme cases were found at one contractor where three workers worked between 124 and 148 consecutive days without a rest day."
Under Qatari law, workers should complete a 48-hour week, equivalent to eight hours per day.
They can also work an extra two hours a day overtime and should have at least one rest day per week.
Similar findings were reached in Impactt's first Qatar audit last year.
However, it praised the Supreme Committee for introducing an initiative which reimburses workers who pay recruitment fees to agents before they get to Qatar, a major issue.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Jerusalem - Israeli lawmakers have passed a controversial bill allowing police to hold the corpses of alleged Palestinian assailants indefinitely, parliament said on Thursday.
The act was passed late Wednesday by 48 votes to 10, a Knesset statement said, hours after another measure permitting the interior minister to strip Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem of their permanent residency permits "if they are involved in terrorism."
The government announced in 2016 that it would not release for burial the bodies of Palestinian assailants killed during attacks unless Palestinians in Gaza released the remains of two Israeli soldiers believed to have been killed in a 2014 war in Gaza.
In November 2017, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled that Israel would not repatriate the bodies of five Islamic Jihad militants killed when the army blew up a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory.
The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in December that the policy was illegal under current law, but it gave the government six months to enact new legislation.
The revised act gives authority to police district commanders "to set conditions for returning the body of a terrorist for family burial," the Knesset statement said.
If the commander decides that a funeral may spark another attack or turn into a political rally in support of violence he can impose limits on the time, location and number of mourners and "a body could be held until the family agrees to the terms," the statement adds.
The bill was sponsored by two MPs from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and the religious-nationalist Jewish Home.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Kinshasa - DR Congo President Joseph Kabila has promised to have "constructive dialogue" with mining companies worried over plans to hike taxes on so-called strategic metals, a category expected to include the booming market for cobalt and copper.
Kabila on Tuesday held more than seven hours of talks with leading players in the Democratic Republic of Congo's mining sector over plans to change the country's 2002 mining code.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
The Hague - War crimes judges Thursday upheld an order that a former Congolese militia leader must pay $1 million in damages to his victims, after his forces rampaged through a village in 2003.
Germain Katanga, 39, a former militia commander from the restive northeastern Congolese Ituri province, had appealed against the compensation, arguing that it was excessive and did not reflect his role in the event.
But judges at the International Criminal Court disagreed.
Presiding judge Howard Morrison said the purpose of reparations "is to repair the harm that was inflicted on the victims" and where possible to try restore things to where they were before.
"That this amount may be high is simply a result of the extent of the harm caused by the crimes for which the person was convicted," Morrison added.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Kinshasa - The powerful Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo has said it supports calls for a nationwide stoppage on Friday in response to a bloody crackdown on protests against President Joseph Kabila.
An umbrella group of 10 pro- democracy groups have appealed for a "ghost town" protest, in which cities come to a standstill, over the deaths of two activists shot dead by police in demonstrations on February 25.
A church-backed group called the Lay Coordination Committee (CLC) on Thursday said it "completely supported" the initiative.
The deaths on February 25 added to 15 killings in marches on December 31 and January 21, according to UN and church figures.
The three rallies, organized by the CLC, have thrown an international spotlight on the mounting tensions in the sprawling, deeply troubled central African nation.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Manila - Philippine authorities opened on Thursday a fresh line of attack against a news outlet that has angered President Rodrigo Duterte, after the website's investors moved to block a separate government effort to shut it down.
The nation's tax authority said it filed criminal charges against Rappler, which has been critical of Duterte's deadly war on drugs, alleging the site failed to pay taxes on bonds it sold in 2015.
The government's move comes just over a week after Silicon Valley investment firm Omidyar Network said it was transferring its roughly $1.5-million investment in Rappler to the site's local managers to stave off Duterte's effort to shut it down.
The investment is at the heart of a case that led to the Philippines' corporate watchdog to void the news site's corporate license in January, saying it violated a law against non-Filipinos owning any share of local media entities. Rappler has appealed.
A statement from the Philippine tax bureau on Thursday accused Rappler of failing to pay taxes on bond instruments - called Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) - worth about 18.6 million pesos ($1.6m) that the news site sold in 2015.
"It is clear there is motive that goes beyond a normal tax audit. Unless of course, the intent is to harass and intimidate Rappler," said the site's chief executive Maria Ressa.
The website is known for its extensive reportage of Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign, which police say has claimed over 4,100 lives but which rights monitors say has left 12,000 dead.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Yogyakarta, Indonesia - A pair of Indonesian Islamic universities are pushing female students to ditch niqab face veils - with one threatening expulsion for non-compliance - as concerns grow over rising fundamentalism in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.
Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University said it issued the edict this week to more than three dozen niqab-wearing students, who will be booted from school if they refuse.
Although niqabs are common in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, they're rare in secular Indonesia, where around 90 percent of its 260 million people have traditionally followed a moderate form of Islam.
For many Indonesians, the niqab - a full veil with a small slit for the eyes - is an unwelcome Arab export and some associate it with radical Islam, which the country has wrestled with for years.
"We are a state university... we've been told to spread moderate Islam," the school's chancellor Yudian Wahyudi told a press briefing this week.
The school, based in Indonesia's cultural capital Yogyakarta, has some 10,000 students.
Another Yogyakarta-based institution, Ahmad Dahlan University, has also introduced a new prohibition on the niqab out of fears it might stir up religious radicalism, which has seen a resurgence on many of the nation's university campuses.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Singapore - A "sudden turn" by the American warship USS John S. McCain led to a collision with a tanker last year off Singapore that left 10 sailors dead, a report by the city-state's government said Thursday.
Singapore's transport ministry, releasing the results of its investigation into the incident, said a "series of missteps" by the destroyer's crew and insufficient action by those of the tanker, the Alnic MC, contributed to the accident.
The vessels smashed into each other in the predawn hours of August 21, 2017 in the busy shipping lanes around the Strait of Malacca. There were no casualties among the tanker's crew.
The commander of the John S. McCain is facing charges including negligent homicide and dereliction of duty, the US Navy said in January, after its own investigation into the incident found "multiple failures" by the ship's crew.
Singapore said its 35-page report did not blame any organization or individual for the fatal crash, but found the warship made an abrupt turn after a transfer of controls caused confusion among the crew.
"The collision... happened because of a sudden turn to port (left) by JSM (John S. McCain), which caused it to head into the path of the (tanker)," the report said.
It also noted that several sailors on watch at the John S. McCain during the collision had been assigned from another warship with steering control systems that were "significantly different".
"These differences were not compensated for. Inadequacies in training and familiarization before the task allocation may have contributed to the actions on John S. McCain," it said.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Seoul - Three prominent South Korean writers and artists who have been accused of sex abuse will have their works and almost all mentions of their names removed from school textbooks, the government said Thursday, as the country's nascent #MeToo campaign spreads.
A growing number of women have spoken out about abuses they suffered at the hands of powerful figures in multiple fields, making headlines in a country that remains socially patriarchal despite economic and technological advances.
Those accused of sexual mis- conduct include Ko Un, a top poet regularly tipped for the Nobel prize for literature, prominent stage director Lee Yoon-taek and playwright Oh Tae-seok.
Seoul poet Choi Young-Mi accused Ko of sexually abusing many women in literary circles, after publishing a thinly veiled poem "Monster" in which she detailed her experiences at his hands.
Lee is under investigation for raping or sexually harassing more than 10 actresses at his theatre group, and Oh is also accused of harassing actresses and students.
The trio's works and almost all 40-odd references to them will be erased from school textbooks, Seoul's education ministry said, describing them as "figures who created social controversy."
Only a few passing mentions of their names will remain, the education ministry said without elaborating further.
Ko also stepped down as of Wednesday as the president of a joint board to create a Korean-language dictionary aimed at bridging the widening linguistic divide between the two Koreas.
Ko has denied the allegations against him in a statement to the Guardian, saying he did "nothing which might bring shame on my wife or myself".
Lee apologized for causing "harm" to actresses, saying he was willing to "take any punishment", but denied accusations of rape. Oh has refused to comment.
Women in South Korea have long been reluctant to come forward about sex abuse due to fears of relentless public shaming and bullying.
But a Seoul prosecutor in January made a rare move to speak out about sex abuse by a superior on live television, triggering a wave of accusations against figures ranging from artists to politicians.
The most high-profile target is Ahn Hee-jung, a former presidential contender and a star politician who announced his resignation as a provincial governor and retirement from politics on Tuesday after an aide accused him of multiple rapes.
Ahn, 52, on Thursday canceled a planned press conference after another woman came forward to claim that she also had been raped by him repeatedly, as prosecutors opened an inquiry.
Amid the barrage of allegations, scores of women's rights activists staged protests to mark International Women's Day, urging stern punishment for offenders and expressing support for victims.
"Can't trust empty apologies! They need to take legal responsibility!" shouted activists wearing black outfit and waving roses at a rally in Seoul.
Many held banners reading "#MeToo, #WithYou", chanting slogans including "You are not alone! We are with you!"
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
New Delhi - India's Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a woman who converted to Islam should be allowed to live with her Muslim husband in a case that sparked debate about inter-religious relationships and women's rights.
Judges overturned a lower court's ruling that the December 2016 marriage between Akhila Ashokan and Shafin Jahan was illegal.
Ashokan's Hindu father won a court order last May to nullify the marriage and return the 25-year-old woman to her parents' home, alleging that she had been forced to wed and convert.
That ruling by the high court in southern Kerala state outraged women's rights campaigners.
Jahan challenged the order, and the Supreme Court said: "In this case, we feel that the high court shouldn't have annulled the marriage.
"Therefore we set aside the high court order. The girl is free to pursue her endeavours," it added.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Colombo - Sri Lankan police said petrol bombs were hurled at a mosque on Thursday as hundreds of troops patrolled a troubled central district where anti-Muslim violence has left three people dead.
Muslim-owned businesses were set on fire and vandalized in several parts of Sri Lanka, police said, days after an island-wide state of emergency was imposed to curb riots in Kandy.
Police announced 85 people had been arrested for rioting in the hill district, including the leader of a radical Sinhalese Buddhist group known for agitating against Muslims.
"We have arrested 10 key suspects, including Amith Weerasinghe, who orchestrated and led these attacks," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters in Colombo, adding that another 75 were detained.
Armored vehicles and heavily- armed troops guarded Kandy, the epicenter of the violence where internet services remain suspended and an evening curfew is in place.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Jaipur, India - Mahima Dutt Sharma rolls her eyes when men make excuses to gawk at her inside the booth where she checks tickets at India's only interstate train station run entirely by women.
"Even though all the information is displayed on boards, they keep coming again and again with silly queries," she said at Gandhinagar junction in Jaipur, where female station masters and clerks draw astonished looks.
"They are not used to seeing women handling such jobs, so I don't really blame them."
These trailblazers are not just breaking new ground in conservative Rajasthan but upending social norms in India that assume a women's proper place is in the home.
India is one of the world's fastest growing major economies but also has one of the lowest rates of female employment, and the trend is worsening.
Fewer and fewer women are entering the workforce, particularly in rural areas where most Indians live. Women are staying in school longer, but even two-thirds of those with university degrees are not working, the World Bank says.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
San Francisco, USA - Amazon on Wednesday promised to keep virtual assistant Alexa from spontaneously cackling, giving people eerie feelings about what the artificial intelligence might be plotting.
Users of smart speakers with Alexa assistant software have comically expressed their fears in recent weeks on Twitter, even posting video snippets of speakers infused with the software laughing menacingly for no apparent reason.
"If Alexa is laughing at you to your face, just imagine what it says about you behind your back," read a quip posted at Twitter by @mattblaze.
Darker posts wondered playfully whether fears about artificial intelligence turning on humans were coming real.
"Every time Alexa laughs, an angel dies," entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk joked in a Twitter exchange on the development.
Tesla co-founder Musk is among high profile figures who have called for vigilance to ensure artificial intelligence doesn't turn on humans.
Amazon told AFP it looked into what was going on and found that sometimes Alexa mistakenly registers the phrase "Alexa laugh" and obeys.
"We are changing that phrase to be 'Alexa, can you laugh?' which is less likely to have false positives," an Amazon spokesperson told AFP.
And, Alexa is being modified to say "Sure, I can laugh," before cackling.
Streaming television titan Netflix took the opportunity to spotlight a Black Mirror dystopian series known for twisted, unanticipated consequences of new technologies.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Nusa Penida - Millions of tourists are drawn to Bali's palm-fringed scenery and rich marine life, but there is a danger lurking beneath its famously crystal-clear waters: a wasteland of plastic rubbish.
An underwater video shot by British diver Rich Horner this week showing a sea overflowing with plastic and other garbage at Manta Point, a well-known diving site near Bali's main island, has highlighted trouble in paradise.
The holiday island has become an embarrassing poster child for Indonesia's trash crisis.
The problem has grown so bad that officials in Bali last year declared a "garbage emergency" across a six-kilometer stretch of coast that included popular beaches Jimbaran, Kuta and Seminyak.
"The ocean currents brought us in a lovely gift of a slick of jellyfish, plankton, leaves, branches, fronds, sticks, etc.... Oh, and some plastic," the diver wrote on his Facebook account.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Shanghai - China will create a bastion for giant pandas three times the size of Yellowstone National Park to link up and encourage breeding among existing wild populations of the notoriously slow-reproducing animal, state media reported Thursday.
At least 10 billion yuan ($1.6bn) has been secured over the next five years for construction of the Giant Panda National Park in mountainous southwestern China for the nation's favorite creature, the China Daily reported.
Plans for the park - which would cover 27,134 square kilometers (10,476 square miles) - were first put forward early last year by the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, China's cabinet, the paper said.
Yellowstone, established in 1872 as the first US national park, spans 8,983 square kilometers.
The Chinese park plans are aimed at enabling wild pandas that are currently isolated in several different areas of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces to mingle and hopefully breed.
Giant pandas have a notoriously low reproductive rate, a key factor-along with habitat loss-in their status as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.
More than 80 percent of the world's wild pandas live in Sichuan, with the rest in Shaanxi and Gansu.
The funding was secured via an agreement signed Tuesday by the Bank of China and the Sichuan provincial Department of Forestry, the paper said.
The bank is to secure the financing by 2023, to go toward poverty alleviation among people living in the remote area and necessary infrastructure and other construction for the park.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
London - US actress Meghan Markle has been baptized by the leader of the Church of England ahead of her marriage to Prince Harry in May, the Daily Mail reported on Thursday.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby performed the 45-minute ceremony at London's Chapel Royal on Tuesday in the presence of Prince Charles, her future father-in-law, the paper said.
Prince Harry's Kensington Palace office declined to comment.
Markle, 36, is understood to have chosen to be baptized and confirmed into the Anglican church out of respect for Queen Elizabeth II's role as the head of the denomination.
The ceremony involved the "Suits" actress being doused with holy water from the River Jordan from the private royal family font, according to the Mail.
The couple will wed on May 19 at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, a residence of Queen Elizabeth II's located west of London.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
New York - Irish rockers The Cranberries said Wednesday they would go ahead with a new album despite the sudden death of singer Dolores O'Riordan in January.
The surviving three members of The Cranberries said that O'Riordan had already recorded vocals for a new album, which the band now hopes to finish and release in early 2019.
The Cranberries said that they also would move forward with a 25th anniversary reissue this year of their debut album, "Everyone Else is Doing it, So Why Can't We?," after putting work on hold following O'Riordan's death.
"After much consideration we have decided to finish what we started," the band wrote on Facebook.
"We thought about it and decided that as this is something that we started as a band, with Dolores, we should push ahead and finish it."
The 1993 album proved to be an international success led by "Linger," a wistful song about a first kiss.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Frankfurt am Main, Germany - The European Central Bank on Thursday signalled greater confidence in the eurozone economy and in the chances of hitting its own elusive inflation goal, but warned that protectionist threats from the United States risked undermining the good times.
Higher forecast growth of 2.4 percent this year and reduced uncertainty mean the bank no longer needs to explicitly say it will ratchet up bond-buying if the global outlook becomes less favorable, ECB President Mario Draghi said.
That element of "forward guidance" on policy dated back to December 2016, when fears of a slide into deflation were much greater - "really unlikely contingencies now," Draghi said.
But he stressed that the bank continues to buy 30 billion euros ($37.1 billion) per month of corporate and government bonds, to reinvest proceeds from its 2.3-trillion-euro stock of securities, and to hold interest rates at historic lows.
"They are all important" pillars of the ECB's support to the economy, Draghi said.
Reassurance from the Italian during his press conference appeared to smooth out an initial spike in the euro seen after the policy change.
Meanwhile, Draghi said the immediate impact of President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on imports of steel, aluminium and cars to the US "is not going to be big".
But business confidence could be sapped as the European Union is already threatening retaliatory levies on American motorbikes, peanut butter and orange juice.
"If it's a negative effect on confidence, then it's going to be negative on both inflation and output," Draghi said.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Berlin - German luxury carmaker BMW said Thursday its 2017 net profit soared 26 percent to a record 8.7 billion euros ($10.7bn), driven by strong demand for electrified vehicles and a tax bump from the United States.
The Munich-based group said deliveries of its electrified vehicles jumped 65.6 percent to 103,080 units, as it plans to put half a million such cars on the road by the end of 2019.
The group, which also owns the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said automobile deliveries were up 4.1 percent to 2.46 million vehicles, while revenues rose a corresponding 4.8 percent to 98.6 billion euros.
The lowering of corporate tax in the US from this year also contributed 977 million euros to the bottom line, the group said.
"We can look back on the most successful year in our corporate history and have achieved record levels for revenues and earnings for the eighth year in succession," said Harald Krueger, BMW chairman.
And the group is targeting another record year in 2019 as it eyes a further rise in deliveries in 2018.
"This year we are targeting another new sales record, with deliveries slightly up on the previous year," said Krueger.
The group made no mention of concerns of fears of a trade war after US President Donald Trump's threat to slap punitive tariffs on European cars if the EU retaliated against his planned taxes on steel and aluminium imports.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
New York - Health service provider Cigna said Thursday it had reached an agreement to acquire pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts in a cash and stock deal worth approximately $67 billion (euro54bn).
The firms said the deal would create a wider portfolio of health services with greater choice, as well as helping make them more affordable.
"Together, our two organizations will help make the healthiest choices the easiest choices, putting health and pharmacy services within reach of everyone we serve," Express Scripts chief executive Tim Wentworth said in a statement.
The transaction, which has been approved by the board of directors of both companies, offers Express Scripts shareholders $48.75 in cash and 0.24 shares of stock of the combined company for each of their shares.
The statement said the price represents an approximately 31 percent premium to Express Scripts' closing price of $73.42 on March 7, 2018.
The deal also includes Cigna's assumption of approximately $15 billion in Express Scripts debt.
Cigna shareholders will own approximately 64 percent of the combined company and Express Scripts shareholders the remainder.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
London - Ryanair has agreed to recognize Italian pilots' trade union ANPAC, the Irish no-frills airline said Thursday, after agreeing a similar deal in Britain.
The agreement comes after Ryanair suffered a troubled end to 2017, being forced to cancel 20,000 flights through to March this year, mainly because of botched holiday scheduling for pilots.
Against that backdrop, the airline has made concerted moves to improve relations with employees by recognizing trade unions.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Geneva - Long synonymous with scantily-clad women draped over pricy vehicles, this year's Geneva Motor Show is almost void of "booth babes", as automakers strive to polish their images following the #MeToo movement.
Carmakers have for several years been scaling back the use of skin-flashing models to draw in an overwhelmingly male audience at events like the one in Geneva.
But the trend seems to have gained significant steam in a world reeling from recent revelations of sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination across all industries and growing demands from women for respect and equality.
"I'm very glad because we are not objects," said Julie, a hostess wearing a knee-length beige dress and heels at one of the stands in Geneva.
"I'm not there to just smile and show my body," the young woman, who did not wish to give her last name, said.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
New York - US stocks finished a volatile session higher Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advancing 0.4 percent to 24,895.21. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent to 2,738.97, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.4 percent to 7,427.95.
In Europe, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index closed 0.6 percent higher at 7,203.24. Eurozone stocks got a boost from the ECB, with Frankfurt's DAX 30 adding 0.9 percent at 12,355.57 and the Paris CAC 40 climbing 1.3 percent at 5,254.10.
Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei closed up 0.5 percent at 21,368.07, the Hong Kong Hang Seng was up 1.5 percent at 30,654.52 and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.5 percent at 3,288.41 at the close.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
The Hague - Dutch chemical giant AkzoNobel Thursday sketched a sombre picture of 2017 earnings, saying net profits fell amid "industry headwinds" following a turbulent year for the world's leading paint maker. AkzoNobel spent much of the last 12 months fighting a surprise takeover bid by its US rival, the Pittsburgh-based PPG. It also lost its long-time chief executive Ton Buchner, who quit in July due to health reasons.
In a battle which reached the Dutch courts, AkzoNobel rejected three takeover offers from PPG which would have valued the Dutch company at 26.9 billion euros ($32.4bn).
The hostile move was led by US activist investor group Elliott Advisors, which finally agreed to bury the hatchet in August after losing one court case.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Florence, Italy - Thousands of mourners and the cream of Italian football gave an emotional sendoff Thursday to Fiorentina player Davide Astori, whose sudden death at the age of 31 has shocked the country.
Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and his Juventus teammate Giorgio Chiellini were among those who paid their respects in Florence to the defender who captained his club and played 14 times for his country.
One banner in the crowd read "Ciao captain", another "Our captain forever" and purple smoke from flares to match the color of Fiorentina's shirts filled the sky.
Applause rang out as Astori's coffin was carried into the Santa Croce basilica as children wearing Fiorentina tracksuits formed a guard of honor.
Milan Badelj, Astori's deputy captain at the club, paid tribute to the player in a homily.
"You were the son and the brother that everyone would like to have," the Croatian said. "Your parents didn't put a foot wrong with you, Davide."
He said everyone who remembered Astori would tell his two-year daughter Vittoria that he had been a man with a capital 'M'.
Buffon and Chiellini dashed back from London where the Turin team dedicated their Champions League victory over Tottenham on Wednesday to Astori.
Chiellini said after the match: "He is on our minds on this day. I cried many times. He was a fantastic player."
Daniele De Rossi, Mario Balotelli and Francesco Totti were among Italy players past and present who came to pay their respects and the entire Fiorentina team, dressed in sober dark suits and ties, attended.
Astori was found dead in a hotel room in Udine on Sunday ahead of Fiorentina's Serie A match against Udinese. All matches were postponed in the wake of the discovery.
A post-mortem examination has found Astori most likely died from a cardiac arrest linked to the slowing of his heart rate.
He will be buried near his home city of Bergamo in northern Italy.
Fiorentina and Astori's former club Cagliari have said they will retire his number 13 shirt in his honor.
There are likely to be more emotional scenes when Fiorentina play their first game since the tragedy when they face Benevento at home on Sunday.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Paris - Arsenal claimed an impressive 2-0 victory at AC Milan in their Europa League last 16, first leg on Thursday to ease some of the pressure on under-fire manager Arsene Wenger.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan drove Arsenal into a 15th-minute lead with his first goal for the club, and a shellshocked Milan fell further behind before half-time as Aaron Ramsey waltzed through to score.
Wenger desperately needed a positive result after coming under pressure for a run of four straight defeats, and he got just that against a Milan side who saw a 13-match unbeaten run ended. Gennaro Gattuso's seven-time European champions now have it all to do ahead of the second leg at the Emirates in seven days' time.
La Liga title challengers Atletico Madrid eased to a 3-0 victory over Lokomotiv Moscow at the Wanda Metropolitano. Diego Simeone's side, who were dumped out of the Champions League in the group stage after finishing behind Roma and Chelsea, put themselves in a dominant position thanks to goals from Saul Niguez, Diego Costa and Koke.
Borussia Dortmund slumped to a shock first-leg 2-1 loss at home to Salzburg, although Andre Schurrle's second-half strike did cut the deficit ahead of next week's return game in Austria.
Kosovo international Valon Berisha scored twice shortly after half-time to put Salzburg in control, the first from the penalty spot, and leave German giants Dortmund facing a surprise exit.
Brazilian defender Marcelo scored the only goal as last season's semi-finalists Lyon grabbed a 1-0 win at CSKA Moscow, as they look to go one better this term with the final at their Groupama Stadium. Lucas Ocampos scored twice, including in the first minute, with Dimitri Payet also on the scoresheet as Marseille saw off Athletic Bilbao 3-1.
Lazio were held to a 2-2 home draw in their tie with Dynamo Kiev, while RB Leipzig will take a lead over Zenit St Petersburg to Russia after Timo Werner ended a four-game goal drought in a 2-1 win.
Sporting Lisbon put one foot into the quarter-finals with a 2-0 home victory against Viktoria Plzen.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Colombo - Opener Shikhar Dhawan hit his second successive Twenty20 half-century to help India thrash Bangladesh by six wickets and register their first win in the tri-nation tournament on Thursday.
Chasing 140 for victory, India rode on Dhawan's 43-ball 55 to achieve their target with eight balls to spare at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium.
India, who won the toss and opted to bowl, gained the upper hand after pacemen Jaydev Unadkat and Vijay Shankar shared five wickets between them to restrict Bangladesh to 139-8.
"I think it was a great performance, something that was expected from us. Right from the start to the end, it was clinical and a complete team effort," India skipper Rohit Sharma said after the win.
"Bowlers executed plans very well. We kept it simple and got the basics right, which was missing in the first game."
Dhawan, whose 90 went in vain in India's opening loss against hosts Sri Lanka on Tuesday, then made sure that his side cruise home, despite initially slumping to 40-2.
Sharma faltered in his second successive outing after chopping a delivery onto his stumps from left-arm paceman Mustafizur Rahman. He made 17.
Dhawan, hitting 5 fours and 2 sixes en route to his sixth T20 fifty, and Suresh Raina, who made 28, put on a crucial 68-run third-wicket stand.
Dhawan finally fell to Taskin Ahmed's right-arm medium pace in the 17th over but Manish Pandey, 27 not out, carried the team home.
Earlier Bangladesh's batting faltered with only Liton Das, who top-scored with 34 and Sabbir Rahman, who hit 30 off 26 balls, giving some respectability to the total.
Unadkat claimed three wickets with his left-arm pace while Shankar, who took his first international wicket in Mushfiqur Rahim, returned figures of 2-32.
"We didn't bat well. We should have scored 30 more runs. We need to find out how to get runs on these kind of wickets," said Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah.
"One win will boost us and will reflect in our game. Hopefully we'll get it."
Bangladesh will next take on Sri Lanka in the third match of the tournament, which is timed to commemorate the host island's 70 years of independence, on Saturday.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Rome - German sprinter Marcel Kittel powered to victory on the second stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday, while BMC rider Paddy Bevin took the overall lead from his team-mate Damiano Caruso.
The 29-year-old Kittel took advantage of an excellent lead-out from his Katusha team to claim his first win of the season ahead of world champion Peter Sagan.
Katusha propelled Kittel off the front of the peloton in the final few hundred meters, and he easily held on to see off the challenges of Slovakia's Sagan and Trek-Segafredo rider Giacomo Nizzolo.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Indian Wells - Five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova suffered a shock defeat on Wednesday to Japanese No. 1 Naomi Osaka, losing her opening match at the WTA Indian Wells tournament 6-4, 6-4.
The former world number one, and twice a winner in the California desert, Sharapova was one of the tournament's major attractions after missing the last two events.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Sisteron - France's Jerome Cousin clinched just his second career stage win on Thursday when he triumphed on the fifth stage of the Paris-Nice, a 165km run to Sisteron.
Cousin, 28, riding for the Direct Energie team, had only once before tasted success in his professional career, winning a stage on the Etoile de Besseges in 2013. His win on Thursday was also his team's second of the week after Jonathan Hivert's Tuesday victory at Chatel-Guyon.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Montmelo - Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel smashed the lap record at Montmelo in Formula One testing on Thursday when he clocked 1min 17.182 in his Ferrari but dismissed it as insignificant.
The German driver, who completed 188 laps, improved on the previous best set just 24 hours earlier by Australia's Daniel Ricciardo in a Red Bull. "The times on these test days don't mean much," said Vettel. Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes teammate Valterri Bottas were in eighth and ninth places respectively with 1:19.296 and 1:19.532.
Just like Vettel, Hamilton refused to see pre-season testing as a potential reflection of what lies ahead in the world championship which gets underway in Australia in just over two weeks time.
"The track is very different to what it used to be because they resurfaced it," explained Hamilton.
"So it's difficult to know what all the experience means once we get to Melbourne. But, I definitely feel that we're moving in a positive direction."
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Pyeongchang - The two Koreas will not march together at Friday's Winter Paralympics opening ceremony due to a disagreement about whether to include islands disputed with Japan on a united flag, officials said.
Athletes from the North and South staged a joint march at the opening of last month's Winter Olympics under a neutral "unification flag", part of an intense rapprochement that also saw Pyongyang send hundreds of cheerleaders and leader Kim Jong Un's sister to the ceremony.
Seoul responded by sending President Moon Jae-in's special envoys - including his spy chief - to Pyongyang, where leader Kim told them he was willing to discuss denuclearization with the US.
The South has since announced plans to hold a historic summit between the North's leader and Moon. The detente came after tensions had soared last year when Pyongyang dramatically ramped up its weapons program.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Orlando - An own-goal from goalkeeper Karen Bardsley sent England spinning to defeat as the United States clinched the SheBelieves Cup on Wednesday with a 1-0 win over the Lionesses.
England manager Phil Neville's first tournament in charge ended in disappointment after Megan Rapinoe's low cross took two deflections on its way into the net.
Neville's side only needed a draw to win the competition outright but were ultimately overpowered by the reigning world champions who were deserving winners.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Bagshot - Eddie Jones said a need for greater speed from his back three lay behind his decision to drop Mike Brown for Saturday's Six Nations clash against France in Paris.
Brown is the kind of fullback beloved by coaches if not always appreciated by fans - sound under the high ball and defensively solid but he rarely excites spectators by pulling off a thrilling counter-attack.
The Harlequins stalwart has been an ever-present during Jones's reign as England coach.
But following Six Nations champions England's 25-13 defeat by Scotland last time out - just their second loss in 26 Tests under Australian boss Jones-Brown will be on the bench in Paris this weekend.
Jones has instead moved Anthony Watson across to fullback, with Jonny May on the right wing and the fit-again Elliot Daly, back from an ankle problem, on the left wing.
That gives England a speedy back three and, in Daly, a long-range goal-kick specialist as well for the trip to the Stade de France.
Owen Farrell will captain England for the first time on Saturday after Dylan Hartley was ruled out because of a calf injury, with Hartley's place at hooker taken by long-serving deputy Jamie George.
Meanwhile powerful ball-carrier Ben Te'o has been recalled in place of Jonathan Joseph to start alongside Farrell in midfield.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Los Angeles, USA - DeMar DeRozan exploded for 42 points as the Toronto Raptors clinched their place in the NBA playoffs with a 121-119 overtime victory against the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.
DeRozan added six assists and four rebounds in a virtuoso performance that hauled the Raptors back from the brink of what would have been an upset loss against the Pistons.
Toronto improved to 47-17 with the win, which tightened their grip on first place in the Eastern Conference standings and made them the first team to guarantee their spot in the postseason.
Detroit fell to 29-36 with the defeat, leaving them just outside the playoff positions in ninth place, five wins adrift of the Milwaukee Bucks in the eighth spot.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Maynooth - Garry Ringrose with less than an hour's rugby to his credit in the last two months will line-up against Scotland with Ireland bidding to move to within one win of a Six Nations Grand Slam on Saturday.
The 23-year-old center - who played every minute of last year's Six Nations but who has missed the first three games of this edition as he battled back from injury - will be Bundee Aki's third partner this term after Robbie Henshaw and Chris Farrell suffered injuries.
Asked about Ringrose's lack of match fitness Schmidt replied: "Yeah always concerns for different reasons and just six games the entire season you calculate that in but sometimes you dont have the luxury of a plethora of options. He has done an incredible job when he has played for us."
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Pretoria - World 100m champion Justin Gatlin tasted defeat on his first visit to South Africa with home sprinter Anaso Jobodwana beating him in the rarely run 150m at the Athletix Grand Prix meeting in Pretoria on Thursday.
"My coach said to focus on the first 100 meters and that is what I wanted to do to just get out there and put together a good race over the first 100m and try to work on my form over the last 50 meters," said Gatlin, who crossed the line in fourth place.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Hong Kong - Japan and Sunwolves coach Jamie Joseph said Thursday that his players will soon reap the benefits of him being able to "roll up his sleeves" and get stuck in on the training pitch.
Former All Black Joseph, who has coached Japan since 2016, replaced Filo Tiatia at the Tokyo-based Sunwolves in September.
He said that working daily with the players will boost both the Super Rugby side this season and the Japan national team as they prepare for their home World Cup next year.
"The main reason being involved in the Sunwolves for myself and the other coaches is really to get more time with the players to develop our game," Joseph told AFP via videolink from South Africa where his side will face the Coastal Sharks in Durban on Saturday.
The Sunwolves will play a "home" game in Hong Kong for the first time this season when they face South Africa's Western Stormers at Mongkok Stadium on May 19.
"The workload to do both jobs and other things is really challenging, but to get in here and roll up our sleeves with the coaching team just outweighs the negatives," said Joseph.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
London - Tottenham forward Son Heung-Min says the club must learn from their painful Champions League exit at the hands Juventus, which denied them a place in the quarter-finals.
Mauricio Pochettino's side were on course for the last eight after Son's first-half goal put them 1-0 up on the night on Wednesday and 3-2 ahead on aggregate.
But the Italian champions stunned Wembley with two goals in three second-half minutes from Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala.
In the dying seconds Harry Kane thought he had taken the tie to extra time, only to see his header come back off the inside of the far post before being cleared off the line.
Son, who was in tears after the final whistle, said: "That hurt, but it's football. We played well but sometimes football is like this. We have to accept the result but still for me, it hurts a lot."
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Edinburgh - Scotland vice-captain Greig Laidlaw has warned Six Nations pacesetters Ireland that fly-half Finn Russell is in the mood to wreak further havoc after masterminding the dismantling of England.
The Glasgow playmaker put in sub-par displays against Wales and France but was back to his flamboyant best, pulling the strings for Gregor Townsend's side as they stunned England 25-13 in their last outing.
The 25-year-old, who will make a big-money switch to French giants Racing 92 this summer, played a crucial role in two of the Scots' three tries and was named man of the match at Murrayfield.
Scotland, third in the Six Nations table after victories against France and England, can blow the championship wide open with a win over Joe Schmidt's Grand Slam-chasers in Dublin this weekend.
"When Finn's in that confident mood we feel as though we can break any defense in the world," said Laidlaw. "We'll need him to play well on Saturday.
"It's brilliant to play with and alongside him. The players around him love having him there as he has such a sharp pass.
"I thought Finn was exceptional against England. He's a world-class player. He may have had a couple of sticky moments in the first two games but you are never going to get it all your own way in Test rugby."
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Gurgaon, India - Shubhankar Sharma's stunning rise up the golf rankings has taken many by surprise but former world number one Ernie Els predicted the Indian's ascent a decade ago.
The 21-year-old Sharma rocketed from 462nd to 66th place in three months following two European Tour wins and a strong showing at the WGC-Mexico Championships last weekend.
He ended tied ninth at the PGA Tour event in Mexico after leading going into the final round, when he was overtaken by American great Phil Mickelson.
Speaking ahead of the Indian Open in Gurgaon, Sharma revealed that it was Els who spotted his talent at a coaching clinic in 2008.
"He put the ball on the tee for me at Delhi Golf Course range and I hit two great shots right near the 100-yard board and he was really happy," said Sharma.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
London - Leicester City midfielder Riyad Mahrez refused on Thursday to quash speculation surrounding his future but did say he maintains a good relationship with the club.
Mahrez was absent from training for 10 days last month after Leicester turned down a bid from runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City in the January transfer window.
The Algerian eventually ended his self-imposed exile and scored for the first time since his return with a dramatic late free-kick to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to Bournemouth.
However, Mahrez declined to say he would commit his long-term future to the Foxes.
"In football, players come, players leave, I'm not saying I'm coming or going," Mahrez told Sky Sports.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
New Delhi - India's cricket board has declined to renew fast bowler Mohammad Shami's contract pending an investigation into "unsavoury" allegations that he cheated on his wife.
Shami, who represented India during the tour of South Africa in January, has dismissed the accusations of infidelity as "part of a big conspiracy" to defame him.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India dropped Shami from a list of contracted players unveiled Wednesday, which saw skipper Virat Kohli and other top Test players awarded salaries just above $1 million.
A supervisory committee over- seeing BCCI affairs said the allegations against Shami put them in a difficult position and that his contract was on hold pending review.
"We are in a bit of Catch 22," Vinod Rai, chairman of the committee, told cricket website ESPNcricinfo.
"Ordinarily you would distinguish and say that is a personal issue and the contract is a professional issue. But someone could easily point out and say this allegation is an unsavoury one and you are still rewarding him."
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Indian Wells, USA - Roger Federer, who regained the world Number One ranking last month, is on a quest to make history in the California desert by winning an unprecedented sixth Indian Wells title.
The 36-year-old Swiss marvel continues to defy the aging process, claiming his 20th Grand Slam title and sixth Australian Open crown in January.
He has enjoyed a perfect start to 2018 by winning both events he has competed in and taking his career singles title tally to 97.
"He shows there is no limit," said third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov on Wednesday. "He keeps on proving it every year on the tour."
Federer opens the defense of his Indian Wells title by playing a second-round match against either American Ryan Harrison or Federico Delbonis of Argentina.
He also won this tournament three straight years beginning in 2004, and in 2012 as well as last year.
Federer comes into the elite event as the oldest ATP Number One in history. In the Open era, only American Jimmy Connors has won more titles than Federer, with 109.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Monaco - Athletics has to be able to stand on its own two feet and not rely on personalities raising its profile in the post-Usain Bolt era, says American track legend Michael Johnson.
The sport is adjusting to coping without the Jamaican sprint icon, who combined sublime talent and a showbusiness-style personality to pull in the crowds.
Johnson, the 50-year-old former 200 meters and 400m world record holder - speaking at the Laureus Awards - said the sport had no choice but to put its money on fierce competition to make up for times when it would not have personalities with captivating back stories to attract spectators.
Asked if athletics needed personalities to survive as a spectator sport, Johnson said: "I hear that a lot and I get it, I understand that.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Midrand, South Africa - Shana Power, South Africa's first female amateur mixed martial arts champion, has been defying gender stereotypes in the world of combat sport for five years.
Power said that prominent female competitors like US star Holly Holm had inspired her passion for the sport and that she now hopes to motivate others to take it up.
"I've inspired people around me, I've been supported by people I trained with so I've had a good experience. I've only had positive feedback from people around me," she told AFP during a training session at her gym in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, ahead of International Women's Day on March 8.
Powers, who at 25 is also the country's first female MMA coach, said that being a woman had not held her back in a sport that is often perceived as largely the preserve of men.
"In my profession I've actually been quite fortunate, I haven't faced many challenges, for example being a woman in a male-dominated sport, I've actually had a lot of positives from it," she said.
But securing equal pay to match that of her fellow male competitors had proved to be a struggle.
"I don't think we get offered the same, but in terms of the personal training and coaching, yes I'm rated the same as a male," she said.
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
Indian Wells - Serena Williams is through taking baby steps on the comeback trail after the birth of her daughter Alexis Olympia in September.
The 23-time Grand Slam singles winner is ramping up her return this week by playing in Indian Wells, her first WTA Tour event since she won the 2017 Australian Open.
After a couple of exhibitions and a Davis Cup doubles match, Williams is eager to hit with the big guns as she opens her campaign on Thursday night against Zarina Diyas.
"I'm ready to just jump in and get started and see what happens," the 36-year-old American told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "Obviously I'm going to have a few hiccups, I would imagine, and I'm ready for that."
Earlier this week she played one tiebreaker in an exhibition tournament in New York. In February she played a doubles rubber for the US Fed Cup team, and took part in another exhibition in Abu Dhabi in late December.
Indian Wells features a star-studded women's field in a tournament that looks wide open.
Many of the players on Wednesday said they welcomed Serena's return.
"We are all going to look to see how she is playing," said reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza.
"She is one of the best players so it is good that she is back, especially after being a mom. It is great."
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko said Serena's contribution to women's tennis cannot be overstated.
"She is an amazing athlete," said sixth seeded Latvian Ostapenko. "She is a very special and what she has done for women's tennis is huge."
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
A KVH SatNews service. Source: AFP, AP
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