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beyond

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  1. i expect got pub drink drank drunk stories....
  2. i wan see twmm.. not some white hair old man....
  3. With the warmth shown towards United States Vice President Mike Pence last week, some of us would have assumed that US is among our largest trading partner. During the joint press conference last Friday (Nov 16), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore is the second-largest Asian investor in the US, with companies and investments in more than 30 U.S. states, including Pence’s home state of Indiana. But here’s a little known fact: China is Singapore’s largest trading partner. According to the Department of Statistics, our top five trading partners are China (S$137.1 billion), Malaysia (S$108.2 billion), the European Union (S$98.4 billion), the US (S$79.9 billion) and Hong Kong (S$69.6 billion). Enhancement of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA) It is in this context that Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Trade and Industry about the enhancement of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA) in a parliamentary question during this week’s parliament sitting. On Nov. 12, Minister Chan Chun Sing witnessed the signing and exchanging of the CSFTA Upgrade in the presence of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Premier Li Keqiang. Li was in Singapore last week for a five-day visit, his first bilateral visit since becoming premier in 2013. According to Channel NewsAsia, talks to upgrade the FTA started three years ago when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Singapore in November 2015. The CSFTA was the Chinese government’s first such agreement with an Asian country. Under the current CSFTA, there are no tariffs on 95 per cent of Singapore’s exports to China, while there are no tariffs on all Chinese exports to Singapore. Impact of current CSFTA Chan replied in a written parliamentary reply to Choo that bilateral trade with China has grown from close to S$76 billion in 2009 to S$137 billion in 2017 since the entry into force of the CSFTA in January 2009. Chan also noted that Singapore’s investments in China “have also doubled” from S$62 billion in 2009 to S$123 billion at end 2016. Chan: “Upgraded CSFTA will promote greater bilateral trade and investment flows between China and Singapore.” Chan said that the CSFTA upgrade completed this month “comprises a meaningful package”, adding that it would “promote greater bilateral trade and investment flows between China and Singapore”. Chan also said in a separate Facebook post that the upgrade “sends a strong signal of both countries’ commitment towards closer bilateral economic collaboration”. Chan cited a few examples of how the upgraded CSFTA would benefit Singapore and Singapore companies. He said that the improved rules of origin will allow more petrochemical and plastics exports from Singapore to qualify for tariff savings. He also highlighted that Singapore companies in the legal, construction and maritime service industries will no longer be subject to ownership caps in various parts of China.
  4. As part of the new e-scooter licensing regime that will kick in come January next year, all registered e-scooters (whether privately owned or under personal mobile device [PMD]-sharing operators) will have identification stickers prominently placed on them. This, the Ministry of Transport says, will facilitate enforcement and deter reckless riding. Following concerns about safety and considerate usage of e-scooters voiced online over the past year, Non-Constituency MP Dennis Tan asked why the government was allowing PMD sharing services while “incidences of unsafe and inconsiderate usage” had not yet subsided. In a Nov. 20 written reply to Tan, the Ministry of Transport said the Land Transport Authority has been “strengthening public education and enforcement for all PMD users”. It said it is allowing sharing services for the convenience it allows public users in first- and last-mile connectivity, and also permit more Singaporeans to use PMDs, without having to own or carry them around. Small-scale operational licences, limited fleet of shared PMDs to be allowed The ministry also said the LTA is studying key issues of PMD-sharing services such as fire risks and charging issues. Errant e-scooter riders prominently featured on social media Since the proliferation of e-scooters, it has become a common occurrence on social media to see videos of errant e-scooter riders. Videos include them riding recklessly and illegally on roads, and some even on expressways. There have also been e-scooter hit-and-run incidents where victims have taken to social media to appeal for witnesses.
  5. The new Apple iPhone Xs Max and iPhone X are seen on display at the Apple Store in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 21, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton The various colors of newly released Apple iPhone XR are seen following the product launch event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Stephen Lam REUTERS: Apple Inc has cut production orders in recent weeks for all three iPhone models launched in September, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing sources. A lower-than-expected demand for the new iPhones and Apple's decision to offer more models has made it more difficult to anticipate the number of components and handsets the company needs, according to the paper. Apple shocked investors a few weeks ago with a lower-than-expected sales forecast for the Christmas quarter, prompting certain suppliers to issue warnings that pointed to weakness in new iPhone sales. Forecasts have been particularly problematic for iPhone XR with Apple cutting its production plan by up to a third of the nearly 70 million units some suppliers had been asked to produce between September and February, the paper said. As recently as last week, Apple informed several suppliers that it lowered its production plan again for iPhone XR, the Journal reported. The company started selling its latest phone generation, the iPhone XS and XS Max, in September and the XR model in October. Apple did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
  6. SINGAPORE: A Bill to extend Singapore’s main employment law to more workers, especially those in managerial and executive positions, was passed in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 20). One of the four key changes will result in core entitlements and protection being extended to 430,000 more managers and executives. Previously, managers and executives earning more than S$4,500 a month were excluded from the coverage of the Employment Act (EA). The inclusion will see their entitlement to and protection of minimum days of annual leave, paid public holidays and sick leave, timely payment of salary as well as statutory protection against wrongful dismissal, among other core provisions. Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that the review of the Employment Act is “timely” as the proportion of Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) in the local workforce is expected to rise from 56 per cent today to about two-thirds by 2030. “Since it was last reviewed in 2012, the profile of our labour force and local employment practices have continued to evolve,” Mrs Teo said. READ: Changes that will extend labour law to PMETs introduced in Parliament With the change, almost all of the working population will come under the protection of the EA. It, however, excludes public servants, domestic workers and seafarers as they are covered separately under other laws due to the nature of their work. Member of Parliament (MP) Patrick Tay and Nominated MP Walter Theseira were among the 17 MPs who spoke on the amendment. Both MPs welcomed the expansion and lauded it as a “radical” change that will help address cases faced by aggrieved professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) earning more than S$4,500. “Having a salary cap meant that there was a deliberate delineation of workers covered under the Act and those who were not. Some rogue employers tried to 'game' the Act by making use of the salary cap to exclude workers from the Act,” Mr Tay said. Dr Theseira said that the vast majority of managers and executives today are in a similar position to the rank-and-file in the past. “They cannot afford to use contract law to settle employment disputes and do not have power to bargain over employment contract terms. They should be protected by the Employment Act, just as the rank-and-file already are, Dr Theseira said. READ: Implementing minimum wage may lead to lower employment: Josephine Teo PROTECTION OF HOURS OF WORK, OVERTIME PAY, REST DAYS Among other EA amendments, rank-and-file workers such as clerks and receptionists and those performing labour work will be given additional protection on hours of work, overtime pay and rest days. This provision, called Part IV, has been revised upwards to cover rank-and-file workers earning up to S$2,600 a month from S$2,500 a month.This will cover 100,000 more workers. The overtime rate payable for rank-and-file workers will be revised upwards from S$2,250 a month to S$2,600 a month. DISPUTE RESOLUTION AVAILABLE AT ‘ONE-STOP’ TRIBUNAL Another key amendment includes simplifying the dispute resolution process. Wrongful dismissal claims will be heard at the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) instead of at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). The change was made to appoint the ECT as a one-stop service as it already hears salary-related disputes. On this, MPs Louis Ng and Intan Azura Mokhtar said that there is a need to make clear the interpretation of dismissals. Both MPs cited examples of employers who took issue with pregnant workers and mothers and dismissed them on murky and unfair grounds. “I recall an incident where a resident was aggrieved that her former employer managed to persuade her to tender her resignation through veiled threats and manipulation,” Dr Intan said. “Without clear definition, the protection against unfair dismissal may be ineffective because instances of unfair dismissals are often not clear-cut and can be easily disguised,” Mr Ng said. READ: 7 in 10 retrenched locals assisted by employment taskforce found new jobs within 6 months: MOM With the transfer, Mrs Teo said that the MOM will publish a set of guidelines to guide the process of adjudicating wrongful dismissal claims Mrs Teo added it “would not be possible” to define all scenarios of wrongful dismissals. The guidelines will take a “more feasible approach” to use illustrations and set out principles and parameters that the ECT must refer to when adjudicating cases. Additionally, the service qualifying period for managers and executives for wrongful dismissal protection will be reduced from 12 months to 6 months. Non-constituency MP Dennis Tan asked how the six months was decided. Mrs Teo said that the duration was derived after tripartite discussions. She added that employers have agreed on the six-month criteria on the basis that it would be sufficient for them to assess a manager and executive’s suitability for the job. SALARY DEDUCTIONS, PROTECTION FOR OTHERS The last of the key changes to the EA is directed at enhancing flexibility for employers. The option to give time-off for employees who work on public holidays will be extended to workmen doing manual labour earning more than S$4,500 a month and rank-and-file workers earning more than S$2,600 a month. They will continue to retain the current options of compensation in the form of an extra day’s salary or a full day off. The EA has also been amended to make salary deductions more flexible while still protecting workers’ interests. Previously, the EA limited the types of salary deductions that employers can make such as absence from work or damaging or losing goods entrusted to the employee. “Such controls protect the employee’s interests, but can also inconvenience them. For example, some companies provide voluntary group hospital and surgical insurance for their employees if the employees agree to co-pay the premiums,” Mrs Teo said. “The EA does not allow such deductions even when the employee agrees. So employees have to separately reimburse the employer,” she added. After the amendment, salary deductions will be allowed if they fulfil two conditions. Firstly, the employee must provide written consent and secondly, the employer must enable the employee to withdraw his consent at any time, without penalty. For example, employers may negotiate group insurance plans for voluntary purchase by their employees. Employees who choose to purchase such plans may authorise their employers to deduct the premiums from their salaries. MPs Denise Phua and Zainal Sapari called attention to the lack of coverage for those who are self-employed as well as vulnerable and at-risk workers such as low-skilled elderly and those with mild to severe disabilities. READ: Tripartite workgroup makes 7 recommendations to address challenges faced by freelancers In response, Mrs Teo said that self-employed persons do not have the same relationship with service buyers as that between employees and employers hence the Employment Act would not apply. However, she added that MOM has put forth recommendations to address challenges faced by self-employed persons earlier this year. The amendments to the EA will commence on Apr 1 next year. 50 YEARS OF EMPLOYMENT ACT With all the changes, Mrs Teo said the EA has “come a long way” since it was enacted in 1968 by then-Minister for Foreign Affairs and Labour S. Rajaratnam. “Back then, managers and executives (M&Es) were a very small part of our workforce. There was little need to cover them under the EA,” she said, noting that it was more than 40 years later in 2009 that coverage extended to some M&Es. Over the years, Mrs Teo said the Government has also improved employment protection and benefits over the years. For example, childcare leave and enhanced maternity leave was introduced in 2004, before provisions on compensation for work on public holidays and paid sick leave were extended to all employees under the EA five years later. And in 2016, the Government introduced itemised pay slips and written key employment terms. READ: Employers must issue itemised pay slips, key employment terms from April “Each amendment of the EA is a result of careful consideration by the tripartite partners to meet the interests of both employers and employees,” Mrs Teo said. “As we mark the 50th anniversary of the EA this year, we should acknowledge the tripartite collaboration that has kept our EA relevant and well-calibrated.” Mr Tay called the act “an embodiment of the delicate balancing of tripartite concerns” to maximise labour force participation while protecting workers’ rights and balancing them against employers’ need to stay competitive and create good jobs. “To ensure its relevance, this balancing act also has to take into account the changing demographics of our workforce and the disruptive forces impacting work and our economy,” he said.0
  7. SINGAPORE: Two men have been arrested after they were suspected of attacking a woman with a penknife in Jurong West, police said on Tuesday (Nov 20). In a news release, the authorities said that they were alerted to a case of assault at a bus stop near Block 501 Jurong West Street 51 at about 2.45pm on Monday. The alleged attackers had fled the scene by the time officers arrived. The victim, who suffered facial injuries and lacerations on her arms, told officers that the men had assaulted her with a penknife. She was taken to hospital, authorities said. Officers from the Jurong Police Division identified the suspects, both 30, with the help of ground enquiries and images from police cameras. Together with officers from the Special Operations Command, they arrested the men at about 9pm that night along Jurong West Street 42. A knife was also seized. Both suspects will be charged in court on Wednesday with voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapon with common intention. If convicted, they may be jailed up to seven years, fined, caned or given a combination of these punishments.
  8. Socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC) said that electronic equipment was seized from the residence of its chief editor Terry Xu (left) on Nov 20, 2018. (Photos: Facebook/TheOnlineCitizen/Terry Xu) SINGAPORE: The police are investigating socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC) for criminal defamation over allegations made in an article published in September. The article, titled "The take away from Seah Kian Ping’s Facebook post", made "serious allegations that the Government’s highest officers are corrupt and that the Constitution has been tampered with", said the police on Tuesday (Nov 20) in response to Channel NewsAsia's queries. A report has been lodged against TOC and the author of the article, police confirmed. The article, written by Mr Willy Sum, has since been removed from TOC's website. "The police are investigating this for the offence of criminal defamation. Electronic equipment such as laptops and handphones were seized in relation to the case," said the police statement. Earlier on Tuesday, TOC said in a Facebook post that it will be "on hiatus for the time being" as the police investigate an alleged offence of criminal defamation. TOC added that five police officers were at the residence of TOC chief editor Terry Xu on Tuesday morning, when electronic equipment such as a desktop computer, laptops and mobile devices were seized. "No confirmed date of return has been given as investigation will take some time to conclude," said TOC. Channel NewsAsia has reached out to Mr Xu for comment.
  9. SINGAPORE: Singapore-listed commodities trader Noble Group is being investigated for suspected false and misleading statements, as well as breaches of disclosure requirements under the Securities and Futures Act, said the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore Police Force, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) on Tuesday (Nov 20). Noble, once Asia's top commodity trader, has seen its market value all but wiped out from US$6 billion in February 2015 after its accounting was questioned by Iceberg Research. To rescue itself, Noble has shrunk its business by selling billions of dollars of assets, taking hefty writedowns and cutting hundreds of jobs, while defending its accounting. The company, whose shares were suspended from trading from Monday due to the restructuring, is seeking to transform into an Asia-focused coal-trading business and list the overhauled business. In a joint statement, the authorities said that the group's wholly owned subsidiary, Noble Resources International (NRI), is also under investigation for potential non-compliance with accounting standards under the Companies Act. ACRA said it has notified NRI's board of directors about its findings of suspected breaches and has requested for more information from them as part of the ongoing investigation. This follows an extensive review of NRI's financial statements for the financial years ended Dec 31, 2012 and Dec 31, 2016, according to the statement. CAD and MAS have also directed Noble Group and NRI to produce documents relating to the preparation of Noble Group's financial statements, after a thorough review of other relevant information, which included that referred to the authorities by the Singapore Exchange Regulation and other third parties. The Singapore Exchange's regulatory unit said it will review if the investigations will impact the financial statements already disclosed by Noble Group related to its restructuring, it said a separate statement. "Trading can only start after restructuring has been completed and this is in turn dependent on our review," it said. However, Mak Yuen Teen, an associate professor of accounting at the National University of Singapore, said he did not expect the investigation by authorities to impact the restructuring. "There's going to be a new entity with a largely new board, and the investigations will be focusing on the previous board and management," Mak said. Noble said last week it had obtained the required approvals, including getting a go-ahead from courts for its restructuring and payment to creditors, clearing the final hurdle to completing its controversial debt-for-equity swap. Under the lifeline provided by creditors, Noble was to halve its debt, in return giving 70 per cent ownership to the creditors, which are comprised mainly of hedge funds. The deal leaves existing equity holders with just 20 per cent in the restructured firm. Sources familiar with the matter said that Noble was expected to name a new board by end-November, and shares in the company, which will be called Noble Group Holdings, were expected to list in December. Tuesday's announcement comes just as Noble was looking to appoint a new chairman after current leader Paul Brough brought the company back from one of the biggest near-death corporate experiences in Asia Channel NewsAsia has reached out to Noble for comment.
  10. A US federal judge has blocked an order issued by President Trump to deny the possibility of asylum to migrants crossing the southern border illegally. US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco issued the temporary restraining order after hearing arguments by civil rights groups. Mr Trump signed the order earlier this month as thousands of migrants made their way towards the US border. He cited national interest concerns but was opposed by civil rights groups. Migrants from across Central America have been travelling north for weeks towards the US-Mexico border. Mr Trump has described the group as a "large caravan of people". They say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. In the run-up to the US mid-term elections, President Trump said many of the migrants were criminals, called the caravan an invasion, and ordered troops to the border. He also repeatedly suggested it was politically motivated. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman and Justice Department spokesman Steven Stafford called the asylum system "broken" in a joint statement, noting their departments will continue "to defend" the policy. They said the current system is "being abused by tens of thousands of meritless claims every year", and supported Mr Trump's actions as "legitimate and well-reasoned". "It is absurd that a set of advocacy groups can be found to have standing to sue to stop the entire federal government from acting so that illegal aliens can receive a government benefit to which they are not entitled." What did the judge say? Judge Tigar, in his ruling, said current legislation made it clear that any foreigner arriving in the US "whether or not at a designated port of arrival" could apply for asylum. He said Mr Trump's proclamation on 9 November was an "extreme departure" from prior practice. "Whatever the scope of the president's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," Judge Tigar added. He was responding in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights. They argued that Mr Trump's ruling was illegal. The judge's restraining order comes into immediate effect and remains in place until a court hearing in December to decide on the case. What is President Trump's order? The proclamation on 9 November says that anyone who wants to claim asylum in the US has to come in through official points of entry - and their cases will not be heard if they enter illegally. The ban was to last 90 days or until the US reached an agreement with Mexico to turn back asylum-seekers. Under US law, there is a legal obligation to hear asylum claims from migrants if they say they fear violence in their home countries - regardless of how they have entered the country. But the Trump administration invoked the same executive power he used to justify his travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations last year. It said the president had the power to "suspend the entry of all aliens" and to impose "any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate on them" if they were judged to be "detrimental" to US interests under the Immigration and Nationality Act. A statement at the time said: "We are using the authority granted to us by Congress to bar aliens who violate a presidential suspension of entry or other restriction from asylum eligibility." There has been no response yet to the San Francisco ruling. What is the situation on the US-Mexico border? The US website Politico reports that 5,800 troops sent to bolster defences on the border will be home for Christmas. It quotes Army Lt Gen Jeffrey Buchanan as saying they have an "end date" of 15 December. Image copyrightREUTERS Image captionAbout 3,000 members of the caravan have so far arrived in Tijuana The decision to send troops came at the height of President Trump's dire warnings about the caravan during campaigning for the mid-term elections - and he was accused of deploying active troops for political purposes. About 3,000 members of the caravan have so far arrived in Tijuana, the Mexican city bordering the US. The city's authorities expect numbers to reach 10,000 in coming weeks. The US temporarily closed the San Ysidro border point, its busiest crossing with Mexico, on Monday to install new movable wire-topped barriers. How hard is it to win US asylum? Claiming asylum is a long and difficult process, and people need to prove they are fleeing, or fear prosecution or torture in their country. Economic migrants do not qualify for asylum. Most of them go through a process called "credible fear", in which an asylum officer examines their case. If the fear is determined to be credible, the individuals are referred to immigration courts. In negative cases, they are ordered to be removed. Between October 2016 and September 2017, officials found 60,566 people to have credible fear among 79,710 cases, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Many of them remain detained during the process. After that, it can take years until a decision is reached. In March, the USCIS had 318,624 pending cases. Some 20,455 people were given asylum in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
  11. Image copyrightWIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES Image captionMs Trump reportedly stopped using her personal email for official work after being told the rules Ivanka Trump used a personal email account to send hundreds of messages discussing official White House business last year, officials confirm. A review into her emails revealed she had used her private address to contact government officials. Ms Trump sent the emails before she was briefed on the rules, her lawyer says. In 2016, her father Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of putting the US "in danger" over her use of a private email while secretary of state. On Monday, the Washington Post reported that while Ms Trump's emails contained mostly logistical and personal information, some may still have been in violation of federal records rules. How serious is this? A Trump administration official told CBS News that Ms Trump's emails did not contain classified information, and what had occurred was basically a lack of understanding of the rules. Ms Trump stopped using her personal address for government correspondence after she was informed that she should not be doing so, the official said. However, Austin Evers, from a group called American Oversight, which submitted the freedom of information request that led to the discovery of Ms Trump's use of personal email last year, said the "president's family is not above the law". "There are serious questions that Congress should immediately investigate," Mr Evers said in a statement. "Did Ivanka Trump turn over all of her emails for preservation as required by law? Was she sending classified information over a private system?" he added. Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Ms Trump's counsel Abbe Lowell, said in a statement to US media: "Ms Trump sometimes used her private account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family." He added that Ms Trump did not create a private server and never transmitted any classified information. "The account was never transferred or housed at Trump Organization, no emails were ever deleted, and the emails have been retained in the official account in conformity with records preservation laws and rules." What did Trump say about Clinton's emails? During his presidential campaign in 2016, Donald Trump said that Mrs Clinton's use of a private server to send official emails while in her post as secretary of state in 2009 was a scandal "bigger than Watergate". He repeatedly criticised her conduct, calling her actions "illegal" and a threat to the security of the US. At the time of his campaign, Mr Trump frequently encouraged crowds at rallies to chant "lock her up" and threatened to imprison Mrs Clinton over the saga. He also called on Russia to help locate some 30,000 emails that Mrs Clinton had not turned over to investigators after she, or her lawyers, determined it was unnecessary as they were personal messages. What was the Clinton email saga all about? Before becoming secretary of state, Mrs Clinton set up an email server at her home in Chappaqua, New York, that she used for all work and personal emails during her four years in office. She did not use, or even activate, a state.gov email account, which would have been hosted on servers owned and managed by the US government. She said it was for convenience.An FBI investigation concluded that Mrs Clinton should not face charges, but said she and her aides had been "extremely careless" in their handling of classified information. Are private emails illegal? It is not illegal for White House officials to use personal email accounts for government business. However, under the Presidential Records Act and Federal Records Act, government officials must forward any official correspondence to a work account within 20 days for preservation. If this is not done reliably, the use of private accounts can put official records beyond the reach of journalists, lawmakers and others who seek publicly available information. There are also rules against sharing classified or privileged information on personal email accounts.
  12. kns u nv ask.... how i say... later u tio flame... lol~~
  13. Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image captionTumblr said it discovered child sexual abuse images during a routine audit Tumblr has been removed from Apple's app store because it let some users post images of child sexual abuse. The social network's app was removed on 16 November but the reason for it being unavailable has only just come to light. In a statement it said the illegal images got through because its filters failed to spot them. It said getting the app re-listed was a "priority" but has given no date for when it might be available. Tumblr gave more details about why it was taken off Apple's store after being approached by tech news site Cnet with a claim that indecent images of children were the cause. In its statement, it said that all images uploaded to Tumblr pass through a database of "known child sexual abuse material". It added that any matches to the database are detected and deleted - and would never appear on its platform. In this case, it said, the images being uploaded were not in the industry database so its filters did not catch them. However, it said, the illegal content was discovered during a routine audit. "We immediately removed this content," it said, and added: "Content safeguards are a challenging aspect of operating scaled platforms." Tumblr has a reputation for allowing sexually-themed material to be shared on its service. This led to it being banned for a day in Indonesia over the mature content. South Korea has also asked it to do a better job of moderating adult content on the service.
  14. Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES Image captionOne bitcoin traded as low as $4,477.21 at one point The value of Bitcoin has fallen below $5,000 (£3,889) for the first time since October 2017. The fall brought the total value of all Bitcoin in existence to below $87bn. On Thursday, 15 November, Bitcoin Cash - an offshoot of Bitcoin - split into two different crypto-currencies, which are now in competition with each other. And some observers have blamed this for creating turmoil in the crypto-currency markets, with many of the digital assets experiencing falls. Bitcoin exchange Kraken said in a blog post that it regarded one of the two new Bitcoin Cash crypto-currencies - Bitcoin SV - as "an extremely risky investment". Bitcoin is a notoriously volatile crypto-currency. At its peak, in November 2017, it briefly hit $19,783 - which means the price has fallen by about 75%. Analysis: Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent After the excitements of last year when the price soared to nearly $20,000 and then tumbled, Bitcoin has been rather dull and stable for much of 2018, settling between $6,000 and $7,000. Sceptics like the economist Nouriel Roubini have predicted its demise, while the "hodlers" - those who promise to hold it come what may - remained confident it was heading "to the moon" where they would drive their "lambos". (That's- Lamborghinis for the uninitiated.) Now it is tumbling again and while it is never safe to ascribe any one cause to a market movement, bitter rifts in the community around a Bitcoin variant appear to be to blame. Bitcoin Cash split off from Bitcoin last year after a dispute about its direction and split again a few days ago in another so-called hard fork. Its value has dropped by almost 50% over the last week. It's confusing but think of the People's Front of Judea versus the Judean People's Front and you will get the picture. The result is gloom right across the cryptocurrency sector with its many altcoins. We were told that the fact that there was a strict limit of 21 million bitcoins which could be mined guaranteed that this would be a strong and stable currency. What nobody seemed to reckon with was that if you could start one cryptocurrency you could start dozens and chaos might then ensue.
  15. Image copyrightESO/M. KORNMESSER Image captionArtwork: Barnard's Star b is thought to be quite cold Astronomers have discovered a planet around one of the closest stars to our Sun. Nearby planets like this are likely to be prime targets in the search for signatures of life, using the next generation of telescopes. The planet's mass is thought to be 3.2 times that of our own, placing it in a category of world known as a "super-Earth". It orbits Barnard's star, which sits "just" six light-years away. The star is an extremely faint "red dwarf" that's about 3% as bright as the Sun. The research is published in the journal Nature. Co-author Guillem Anglada Escudé said the newly discovered world was "possibly a mostly rocky planet with a massive atmosphere. It's probably very rich in volatiles like water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide - things like this. Many of them are frozen on the surface". The Sun's closest neighbours Image copyrightIEEC/SCIENCE-WAVE - GUILLEM RAMISA Dr Anglada Escudé, from Queen Mary University of London, added: "The closest analogue we may have in the Solar System might be the moon of Saturn called Titan, which also has a very thick atmosphere and is made of hydrocarbons. It has rain and lakes made of methane." The planet, Barnard's Star b, is about as far away from its star as Mercury is from the Sun. It's the second closest exoplanet to Earth after Proxima Centauri b, whose discovery was announced in 2016. The planet orbits past a boundary called the "snow line", beyond the traditional habitable zone where water can remain liquid on the surface. On distance alone, it's estimated that temperatures would be about -150C on the planet's surface. However, a massive atmosphere could potentially warm the planet, making conditions more hospitable to life. Image copyrightESO/M. KORNMESSER Image captionArtwork: It's thought the planet is rocky, with a massive atmosphere The researchers used the radial velocity method for their detection. The technique can detect "wobbles" in a star caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. These wobbles also affect the light coming from the star. As it moves towards Earth its light appears shifted towards the blue part of the spectrum and, as it moves away, it appears shifted towards the red. "This planet is particularly complicated because the orbital period (the time to complete one full orbit of the host star) is 233 days. In one year, you only see one part of the cycle, and you have to cover it over many years to be sure that it's repeating," Dr Anglada Escudé told me. The team re-examined archived data obtained from two astronomical surveys over a 20-year period. They also added new observations with the Carmenes spectrometer in Almeria, Spain, the Eso/Harps instrument in Chile and the Harps-N instrument in the Canary Islands. It's the first time the radial velocity technique has been used to detect a planet this small so far away from its host star. Image copyrightNATURE Image captionThe planet lies at about the same distance as Mercury orbits the Sun "We couldn't get a single experiment that would detect it unambiguously, so we had to combine all the data very carefully," said the Queen Mary University of London astronomer. "We found a lot of systematic errors from several of the instruments that were producing "ghost signals". It was not only about getting new data but also about understanding the systematic effects. Only when we had done that did the signal become very clear and obvious." When the next generation of telescopes come online, scientists will be able to characterise the planet's properties. This will likely include a search for gases like oxygen and methane in the planet's atmosphere, which might be markers for biology. "The James Webb Space Telescope might not help in this case, because it was not designed for what's called high contrast imaging. But in the US, they are also developing WFirst - a small telescope that's also used for cosmology," said Dr Anglada Escudé. "If you take the specs of how it should perform, it should easily image this planet. When we have the image we can then start to do spectroscopy - looking at different wavelengths, in the optical, in the infrared, looking at whether light is absorbed at different colours, meaning there are different things in the atmosphere." Image copyrightNASA Image captionArtwork: The next generation telescope WFirst, should have the capability to produce a direct image of the new planet This is not the first time there have been claims of a planet around Barnard's Star. In the 1960s, the Dutch astronomer Peter van de Kamp, working in the US, published his evidence for a planetary companion, based on perturbations in the motion of the star. However, van de Kamp's claims proved controversial, as other scientists were not able to reproduce his finding. "The new planet is impossible for Peter van de Kamp to have detected. The signal would have been too small for the technique he was using," said Guillem Anglada Escudé. However, the new data contain tentative hints of a second planet orbiting Barnard's Star even further out than the Super-Earth. "The new data does show evidence for a long period object. That object... has a very low probability of being the van de Kamp planet. But it's a long shot," said Anglada Escudé. In a separate article published in Nature, Rodrigo Diaz, from the Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who was not involved with the study, said the discovery "gives us a key piece in the puzzle of planetary formation and evolution, and might be among the first low-mass exoplanets whose atmospheres are probed in detail". He added: "Difficult detections such as this one warrant confirmation by independent methods and research groups... a signal for the planet might be detectable in astrometric data - precision measurements of stellar positions - from the Gaia space observatory that are expected to be released in the 2020s." The star is named after the American astronomer E E Barnard, who measured properties of its motion in 1916.
  16. Image copyrightNASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/BROWN UNIVERSITY Image captionJezero Crater shows strong evidence from orbit of past water activity The American space agency (Nasa) says it will send its 2020 Mars rover to a location known as Jezero Crater. Nasa believes the rocks in this nearly 50km-wide bowl could conceivably hold a record of ancient life on the planet. Satellite images of Jezero point to river water having once cut through its rim and flowed via a delta system into a big lake. It is the kind of environment that might just have supported microbes some 3.5-3.9 billion years ago. This was a period when Mars was much warmer and wetter than it is today. What is so special about Jezero? Evidence for the past presence of a lake is obviously a draw, but Ken Farley, the Nasa project scientist on the mission, said the delta traces were also a major attraction. "A delta is extremely good at preserving bio-signatures - any evidence of life that might have existed in the lake water, or at the interface of the sediment and the lake water, or possibly things that lived in the headwaters region that were swept in by the river and deposited in the delta," he told reporters. Jezero's multiple rock types, including clays and carbonates, have high potential to preserve the organic molecules that would hint at life's bygone existence. The 500m-deep crater was chosen after a four-year consultation process with Mars scientists. In a straw-poll taken at the end of the most recent site-selection workshop, it came out the clear favourite. Nasa's administration has now endorsed the choice. Jezero is sited just north of Mars' equator. It is named after a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In some Slavic languages the word "jezero" also means "lake". Image copyrightNASA Image captionThe Mars 2020 rover is based on the design of the Curiosity robot How does 2020 link to future missions? Another of the robot's key objectives will be to select and "cache" in small canisters some rock samples that could, at a later date, be collected and returned to Earth labs for analysis. Nasa is working with the European Space Agency (Esa) on this initiative, but exactly when the sample tubes might come home is uncertain. Planning with Esa was at an early stage, said Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasa's science chief. "Depending on how the details come out, it could be in the early 2030s," he explained. Image copyrightNASA Image captionArtwork: The 2020 mission will again use a "Skycrane" to put the rover on the surface Is the 2020 rover a copy of Curiosity? The 2020 rover is based on the one-tonne Curiosity robot that the agency landed in Gale Crater in 2012. Curiosity has been a great success, and Nasa wants to repeat it. Using the same "template" also saves money; some equipment spares were left over from 2012. That said, instrument-wise, the new vehicle is quite a bit different. Yes, it will again feature cameras, a robotic arm, a drill and a laser - but there is a new suite of sensors and analysis tools, and there is even an experiment to demonstrate how future astronauts might make oxygen on the Red Planet. The new robot will use the same "Skycrane" technology that put Curiosity down with such great precision six years ago - but with an add-on. Engineers have developed an on-the-fly mapping system called Terrain-Relative Navigation which ought to bring even greater accuracy to the landing process. What else can we look forward to on Mars? Missions to Mars can only launch inside a tight time window due to the alignment of the planets. The 2020 venture will leave Earth in the July/August of that year and should land on 18 February 2021. "Nasa has a long and successful track record at Mars. Since Mariner 4 flew by Mars in 1965, we've orbited, we've landed and we've roved across the surface of the Red Planet," said Lori Glaze, the acting director of Nasa's planetary science division. "And we've got another opportunity to improve our track record a week from today when we land InSight on the surface. We're all looking forward to that." Unlike 2020 and Curiosity, Insight is a static lander. It will be the first mission dedicated to "looking inside" the planet. It will use seismometers to listen for "Marsquakes", to help build a picture of Mars' internal structure. Esa is sending a rover to Mars in 2020 also. European scientists recently selected Oxia Planum as its destination. Satellite imagery suggests, as with Jezero and Gale, this ancient terrain came into prolonged contact with water.
  17. Image copyrightVCG/GETTY IMAGES Image captionActor Jiang Jinfu, who has admitted to abusing his girlfriend Hundreds of thousands of Sina Weibo users have reacted angrily to Chinese actor Jiang Jinfu's admission of domestic violence against his girlfriend. He made the admission in the early hours of Tuesday morning after the Japanese model Zhongpu Youhua posted pictures of her injuries on Instagram. Image Copyright harukanakauraHARUKANAKAURA Report "Recently I have worried everyone who cares about me," she wrote, adding that she is "still alive". "Lawyers and relevant personnel have asked that I don't disclose much," she said. Despite Instagram being blocked in China, thousands of Chinese and Japanese speakers reacted angrily to her bilingual post. Mr Jiang has posted an apology on Sina Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, where he has 17 million followers. "This month I have spent confessing and being remorseful," he says. "My impulsive behaviour hurt you and your family… I am ashamed of my actions… I will take responsibility for my actions and accept punishment. I sincerely apologise to everyone." The police have not yet issued a statement. More than 163,000 Weibo users have responded to the apology. Image copyrightSINA WEIBO Image captionJiang Jinfu's post on Weibo admitting abusing Zhongpu Youhua Thousands have also commented angrily on media posts about the story. "Domestic violence cannot be forgiven," reads one comment. "My God, so many bruises," says another. "So much hate to reduce a girl to this...how cruel" said one user in a comment that has been liked 17,000 times. Domestic violence in China China's first domestic violence law was enacted in 2016 and it was only in 2001 that physical abuse became grounds for divorce. Despite the recent law, domestic violence cases remain difficult to win in court. In the 10 months after the law came in, says women's rights organisation Equality, 142 abuse-related cases were brought to court in the city of Jinan. Only 14 cases, where the accused admitted to the allegations, resulted in divorce. The domestic violence law has also been criticised for not including gay couples. "Violence within families has traditionally been viewed as a private issue in China," wrote wrote feminist campaigner Lu Pin in March this year. "One in which outsiders have no right to interfere." It is perhaps unsurprising then, that in this context, some Sina Weibo users leapt in to defend Jiang Jinfu saying he was "set up" and that "the girlfriend definitely had problems."
  18. kns wan babu chair nv ask me... i got one... whaahahha grey and black de.. and not crying....
  19. ya.... u is take things throw at ppl.....
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