Ben Carson has officially suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election.
Speaking to conservative activists, Ben Carson, 64, said: “I’m leaving the campaign trail.”
Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, had been a front-runner but his campaign stalled in recent months after he performed badly on foreign affairs and questions about his background story.
He has not said which of the remaining four candidates he plans to endorse in the race for the Republican nomination.
“There are a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington DC.
After receiving a standing ovation from the crowd, Ben Carson said he would still be “heavily involved in trying to save the nation”.
Ben Carson’s announcement was expected after he said earlier this week that he did not see a “political path forward” in his campaign for the nomination.
He had earned only eight delegates before his decision to drop out from the nomination race.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on Saturday.
On March 4, Ben Carson was announced as a new chairman of My Faith Votes – a group set up to encourage Christians to vote in elections.
Ben Carson had a poor upbringing in Detroit but made it to Yale before a brilliant medical career.
A knife allegedly found at a former home of OJ Simpson is now being tested by LAPD.
OJ Simpson’s was acquitted in 1995 following a murder trial that captivated the US.
Someone claiming to be a construction worker gave an off-duty police officer the knife some years ago and he kept it, thinking the case was closed.
Police recently recovered the knife and are testing it for DNA and hair samples.
OJ Simpson had been accused of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman in June of 1994.
However, a jury found the former American football star not guilty after a dramatic televised trial.
OJ Simpson cannot be prosecuted again for the same charges under US law.
Police cast some doubt on whether the knife was connected to the OJ Simpson case at a news conference on March 4, saying it could be “bogus”.
“If this story is accurate, you’d think anytime you come into contact with evidence that you should submit it to investigators,” said Captain Andrew Neiman of the LAPD.
“I don’t know why that didn’t happen.”
Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were found stabbed in the head and neck in the yard of Brown’s home.
Authorities asked OJ Simpson to turn himself in after the murders, but he failed show up at the police station.
He was spotted inside a White Ford Bronco hours later, leading to a slow-speed pursuit across Los Angeles’ highways.
The pursuit was broadcast on live television to millions of viewers.
OJ Simpson eventually surrendered after 90 minutes in which crowds gathered to watch along the road and news helicopters flew overhead.
He later assembled a “dream team” of highly paid lawyers for the case, including Johnnie Cochran and Robert Kardashian.
The trial, which lasted for 10 months, created huge media frenzy. TV networks reaped high ratings from airing trial proceedings and many magazine covers were devoted to it.
When OJ Simpson was found not guilty, Americans were divided on the jury’s decision – mostly along racial lines.
He later lost a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the victims’ families. His property, where the knife was found, was razed in 1998.
In 2007, OJ Simpson was sentenced to a 33-year prison term on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping.
The case recently returned to prominence with the airing of the TV miniseries American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson.
Donald Trump has dropped out of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), opting instead to campaign in Kansas and Florida.
The CPAC organizers said they were “very disappointed”.
The Republican presidential frontrunner was scheduled to speak on March 5 at the gathering of conservative activists in Maryland.
Donald Trump’s fellow Republican presidential candidates are all expected to speak.
“Very disappointed Donald Trump has decided at the last minute to drop out of CPAC – his choice sends a clear message to conservatives,” CPAC tweeted.
Donald Trump’s campaign team said in a statement that he will be holding a rally in Kansas instead, followed by a rally in Orlando.
The statement said Donald Trump looks forward to attending next year, “hopefully as president of the United States”.
The decision could further damage an already-strained relationship with the GOP establishment.
Donald Trump was attacked on March 3 by former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who remains a central figure within the party.
Mitt Romney called Donald Trump a “phony” and a “fraud” and said his controversial policies threatened to make the world less safe.
Later on March 3, Donald Trump came under attack from his nomination rivals at a Republican debate in Detroit. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz criticized the New York businessman for changing his position on various issues.
Donald Trump admitted he had changed his stance on issues but argued that flexibility was a strength.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on March 5.
Donald Trump has already won 10 of the 15 states that have voted so far, with his promise to “make America great again”.
The cause of death of Bobbi Kristina Brown was “immersion associated with drug intoxication”, medical records show.
The 22-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston died at a hospice on July 26, six months after she was found unresponsive in a bath.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office in Atlanta released an initial statement ahead of the full post-mortem report – eight months after Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death.
A judge in Atlanta issued an order on March 3 to unseal the report, following requests from the media.
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The medical examiner’s office said it reviewed medical records, investigative files and other documents to determine how Bobbi Kristina Brown died.
The exam concluded cannabis and alcohol were involved in her death, along with medication used for sedation or to treat anxiety, citing the “underlying cause” of death as “immersion associated with drug intoxication”.
The statement said: “Death was clearly not due to natural causes, but the medical examiner has not been able to determine whether death was due to intentional or accidental causes, and has therefore classified the manner of death as undetermined.”
The state reportedly requested the post-mortem documents originally be sealed in September 2015 in order to protect an ongoing investigation into Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death.
Media lawyers argued the sealing order should be lifted because it was made without a public hearing, in violation of the long-standing rules that post-mortem results are public records.
“We would hope that news agencies and the media receiving the report would do so with the discretion and dignity a family who has lost a loved one deserves,” said district attorney Paul Howard, who argued for the sealing of the report last year.
“Our investigation into the death of Bobbi Kristina Brown will continue.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown was the only child of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.
She was buried in August at the Fairview cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey, next to her mother.
Whitney Houston drowned in a bath in 2012 on the eve of the Grammy Awards ceremony.
Brazil’s ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been arrested as part of a huge fraud inquiry into the state oil company Petrobras.
His house was raided by federal police agents and he was brought in for questioning.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who left office in 2011, has denied allegations of corruption.
The long-running inquiry, known as Operation Car Wash, is probing accusations of corruption and money laundering at Petrobras.
Dozens of Brazilian executives and politicians have been arrested or are under investigation on suspicion of overcharging contracts with Petrobras and using part of the money to pay for bribes and electoral campaigns.
Police said they had evidence that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 70, received illicit benefits from the kickback scheme.
His institute said in a statement the “violence” against the former president was “arbitrary, illegal and unjustifiable”, as he had been co-operating with the investigations.
Officials said some 33 search warrants and 11 detention warrants were being carried out by 200 federal police agents in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bahia.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s house in Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, was raided early on Friday. The headquarters of his institute in Sao Paulo was also targeted, as were his wife, Marisa, and sons, reports said.
One of the lines of inquiry is that construction companies targeted by the operation could have favored Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the development of a ranch and a luxury beachfront apartment.
Raids in the cities where these properties are located have also been carried out.
“Ex-president Lula, besides being party leader, was the one ultimately responsible for the decision on who would be the directors at Petrobras and was one of the main beneficiaries of these crimes,” a police statement quoted by Reuters news agency said.
“There is evidence that the crimes enriched him and financed electoral campaigns and the treasury of his political group.”
Supporters and opponents of the former president clashed in front of his house following the raids.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, from the Workers’ Party, served two terms as president and was succeeded in office by his political protégé, Dilma Rousseff.
He led Brazil during a time of rapid economic growth and is credited for lifting millions of people out of poverty.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva still is a well-liked figure and has been considered as a potential candidate in presidential elections in 2018. However, his popularity has been hit by recent allegations that he either had knowledge or involvement in the wrongdoings.
On March 3, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s institute said the former president had never committed any illegal acts before, during or after his presidential term.
The corruption scandal threatens the government of Dilma Rousseff, who has faced repeated impeachment calls, analysts say.
Dilma Rousseff has denied having any knowledge of wrongdoings.
Donald Trump has come under fire again at the latest Republican debate, after a day in which the GOP’s veteran politicians urged voters to desert him.
The front-runner in the Republican race was on the defensive in Detroit as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz piled in.
Donald Trump admitted he had changed his stance on issues but said flexibility was a strength.
Senior Republicans say Donald Trump is a liability who would lose the election.
The debate hosted by Fox News began with Donald Trump being asked about an attack earlier in the day by Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, who accused the businessman of bullying, greed and misogyny.
Donald Trump dismissed Mitt Romney as a “failed candidate”, but he immediately found himself on the defensive from Marco Rubio.
The Florida senator said he was “not going to turn over the conservative movement to someone who thinks the nuclear triad is a rock band from the 1980s”.
In one of the most bizarre moments, Donald Trump defended the size of his hands and then quipped about another part of his anatomy.
There were plenty of personal insults from Donald Trump, who labeled the Florida senator “little Rubio” and the senator from Texas as “liar Ted”.
Donald Trump was forced to explain a civil lawsuit involving the collapse of Trump University.
He said he would win the case but Marco Rubio said he was trying to “con people into giving him their vote, just like he conned people into giving him their money”.
Donald Trump was also challenged by the Fox News panel for changing his stance on Syrian refugees, the war in Afghanistan and President George W. Bush.
He replied: “I have a very strong core. But I’ve never seen a successful person who wasn’t flexible, who didn’t have a certain degree of flexibility.”
Hours earlier, Mitt Romney led growing calls by leading Republicans against a Donald Trump nomination.
Calling him a “phony” and a “fraud”, the former Republican presidential candidate said Donald Trump’s policies – like the deportation of undocumented migrants and banning Muslims from entering the US – would make the world less safe.
Others like Paul Ryan, John McCain and a host of national security committee members have also attacked Donald Trump since he cemented his front-runner status earlier in the week on Super Tuesday.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on March 5 and Donald Trump is hoping to get a step closer to earning his party’s nomination.
Donald Trump, a billionaire with no experience of political office, has won 10 of the 15 states that have voted so far, with his promise to “make America great again”.
His supporters value his perceived authenticity and business acumen, and say he is the strong leader the country needs.
With the effective departure of Ben Carson this week, the field of Republican candidates – once 17-strong – has now been narrowed to four.
The debate, sponsored by Fox News, was the first time Donald Trump had faced his rivals since winning seven states on Super Tuesday.
It also brought him face to face with presenter Megyn Kelly, whom he dismissed as a “bimbo” after they clashed in the first primary debate.
This time Donald Trump was all smiles and he complimented her looks when he took her first question.
In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton has 10 states, five more than rival Bernie Sanders.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will take to the debate stage in Flint, Michigan, on March 6.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced that his country’s nuclear weapons should be ready for use “at any time”, state media report.
Kim Jong-un told military leaders North Korea would revise its military posture to be ready to launch pre-emptive strikes, the KCNA said.
However, despite its rhetoric it remains unclear how advanced North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is.
The UN has imposed some of its toughest ever sanctions on North Korea following its nuclear test and missile launch.
In response on March 3, North Korea fired six short-range projectiles into the sea.
According to the KCNA, Kim Jong-un was speaking at a military exercise on March 3, which is thought to be when the projectiles were fired.
Kim Jong-un said North Korea “must always be ready to fire our nuclear warheads at any time” because enemies were threatening the North’s survival.
“At an extreme time when the Americans… are urging war and disaster on other countries and people, the only way to defend our sovereignty and right to live is to bolster our nuclear capability,” he was quoted as saying.
Analysts still doubt whether North Korea has the ability to make a nuclear bomb small enough to put on a feasible missile, but Kim Jong-un’s announcement brought a swift response from the US.
“We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Bill Urban said.
The US and South Korea began talks on March 4 on the possible deployment of a US missile defense shield in the South.
Initial talks will focus on the costs, effectiveness and environmental impact of installing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, among other issues, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Princess Cristina of Spain has testified for the first time at her trial for alleged tax fraud, answering only the questions posed by her own lawyer.
The 50-year-old sister of King Felipe told the court in Mallorca that she had never asked her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, how he ran a property company they jointly owned.
Inaki Urdangarin is accused of using his royal connections to generate business income they used for private spending.
Both deny any wrongdoing. Fifteen other defendants are also on trial.
Princess Cristina could face a maximum of eight years in jail if found guilty.
She denies knowledge of the alleged embezzlement scam that also involves her husband and 16 other defendants.
Asked by her lawyer during the 20-minute appearance why she never talked with her husband about what the company did, Infanta Cristina said they “weren’t issues that interested me”.
“At that time my children were very small and we were very busy. He was in charge of the family expenses. I didn’t get involved in that,” she added.
The case was launched in 2010 and has become highly symbolic of perceived corruption among Spain’s elites, including the royal family.
In 2015, King Felipe stripped his sister and her husband Inaki Urdangarin of their titles, the Duke and Duchess of Palma de Mallorca.
Princess Cristina now lives in Switzerland, but remains the sixth in line to the Spanish throne and is the first member of the royal family to go on trial.
Her lawyers argued that as public prosecutors had refused to press charges against her, the counts should be dismissed.
However, the three judges agreed to continue with the prosecution using the evidence filed by the anti-corruption group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands).
The charges relate to the real estate company Aizoon that Princess Cristina owned with Inaki Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball medalist.
Princess Cristina is accused of making personal use of Aizoon funds for paying for clothes and dance lessons for the couple’s children, as well as work on the couple’s Barcelona mansion, which reduced the company’s taxable profits.
Inaki Urdangarin is alleged to have used the non-profit Noos Institute sports foundation he ran as a vehicle to win falsely inflated contracts from regional government bodies, before channeling the money to personal accounts via tax havens.
Noos is alleged to have received more than €6m ($6.5 million) of public money, most of it from the Balearic Islands and Valencia regional governments.
Egyptian student Emadeldin Elsayed is facing deportation from the US after a Facebook post saying that the world would thank him if he killed Donald Trump.
The 23-year-old pilot student has not been charged with a crime but authorities are trying to remove him from the US, his attorney, Hani Bushra, said.
Emadeldin Elsayed is being held in a jail in Orange, California.
An immigration court hearing will determine whether he will be deported.
“It seems like the government was not able to get a criminal charge to stick on him, so they used the immigration process to have him leave the country,” Hani Bushra said.
“The rhetoric is particularly high in this election, and I just feel he got caught up in the middle,” he added.
Secret Service agents interviewed Emadeldin Elsayed in early February after he posted a photo of Donald Trump on Facebook and wrote he was willing to serve a life sentence for killing the billionaire, and the world would thank him, Hani Bushra said.
Emadeldin Elsayed said he wrote the message because he was angered by Donald Trump’s comments about Muslims. He said he immediately regretted it and he never intended to harm anyone.
Donald Trump, who is leading the race for the Republican nomination for the presidency, has promised a crackdown on immigration. He has vowed to build a wall along the entire Mexican border and called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US.
The agents returned eight days later and told him federal prosecutors had declined to charge him but said his visa to attend flight school had been revoked. He was then arrested by immigration authorities.
Emadeldin Elsayed said the agent who interviewed him mentioned last year’s shooting rampage by a Muslim husband-and-wife couple in San Bernardino and the 9/11 terror attacks, which were carried out by Muslims who undertook flight training in the US.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that Emadeldin Elsayed was arrested because he violated “the terms of his admission to the United States”.
The state department, secret service and representatives for Donald Trump all declined to comment, according to the Associated Press.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has dismissed Oscar Pistorius’ appeal against his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Following this ruling, Oscar Pistorius will be sentenced in April.
Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 after firing four times through a locked toilet door.
A manslaughter verdict was overturned in December and a murder verdict introduced in its place.
Photo Getty Images
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the Constitutional Court found “no prospect of success” in Oscar Pistorius’ appeal.
The case will now go back to Judge Thokozile Masipa – who cleared the athlete of murder in the original case – for sentencing on April 18.
Prosecutors are believed to be targeting a sentence of at least 15 years in jail for Oscar Pistorius.
The double-amputee athlete is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail.
In December, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the lower court under Judge Thokozile Masipa had not applied correctly the rule of dolus eventualis – whether Oscar Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.
Justice Eric Leach said that having armed himself with a high-caliber weapon, Oscar Pistorius must have foreseen that whoever was behind the door might die, especially given his firearms training.
Oscar Pistorius has always maintained he believed he was shooting at an intruder.
Brazil’s economy shrank by 3.8% in 2015, according to the national statistics agency IBGE.
The world’s seventh-largest economy has fallen sharply in recent months due partly to low commodity prices and sluggish global growth.
Political paralysis has hampered Brazil’s efforts to tackle its economic problems, including a budget deficit that has reached 10.8% of GDP.
President Dilma Rousseff is trying to head off the opposition’s efforts to impeach her over alleged accounting irregularities, which means she cannot afford to alienate supporters in her Workers’ Party by cutting spending or raising taxes.
Investigations are also continuing into a high-level bribery and corruption scandal involving major construction projects.
Dilma Rousseff’s predecessor as president, fellow Workers’ Party politician Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is one of the people under investigation.
Brazil’s economic performance in 2015 vies with that of Russia as the worst in a major economy for 2015. Official figures for Russia’s 2015 GDP have not yet been released.
It was also Brazil’s worst set of figures since 1990.
Analysts say Brazil is now caught in a classic case of stagflation – a combination of high inflation and a recession.
On March 2, policymakers at Brazil’s central bank voted to keep the benchmark Selic interest rate at its current level of 14.25%.
High interest rates have traditionally been used in Brazil as a policy tool to keep inflation in check. However, inflation has surged in any case, now standing at 11%, while high rates are hurting businesses.
Two female militants have been killed in Istanbul after attacking police with gunfire and a grenade, the city’s governor has said.
A statement on a website close to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) said it carried out the attack.
The two women died in a shootout with police after hiding in the building in Bayrampasa district, officials said.
Two policemen were hurt in the attack.
Photo Dogan
The activists had earlier opened fire at a riot police station in Bayrampasa, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
The statement on the website hailed the “brave female liberation fighters”.
The extreme-left DHKP-C has waged a violent campaign for more than three decades.
Turkey says the group has killed dozens of police officers and soldiers along with scores of civilians since it was formed in 1978 with the aim of replacing the Turkish government with a Marxist one.
It also opposes what it calls US imperialism and has several times targeted US military personnel and diplomatic missions.
Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said an investigation into today’s attack was under way.
Both Kurdish rebels and far-left militants have attacked police in Istanbul in the past.
Today’s attack comes amid a rise in violence in Turkey since mid-2015.
Mitt Romney has urged the Republican Party to reject Donald Trump, reportedly calling the front-runner a “phony” and “fraud”.
The former Republican presidential candidate accuses Donald Trump of “playing the American public for suckers”, in a planned speech leaked to the media.
Donald Trump has meanwhile mocked Mitt Romney on Twitter as a “failed candidate” who should not advise on getting elected.
Many senior Republicans are alarmed at the prospect of Donald Trump securing the nomination for November’s election.
In the latest attack from top figures in the party, several members of the Republican national security community wrote an open letter describing Donald Trump’s “vision of American influence and power in the world” as “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle”.
“He swings from isolationism to military adventurism within the space of one sentence,” the letter said.
Donald Trump has sought to present himself as a “unifier”, after his victories in seven states on so-called Super Tuesday consolidated his position at the front of the race for his party’s nomination.
Mitt Romney, who has been a fierce critic of Donald Trump, is expected to warn in his speech on March 3 that his policies are a threat to the Republican Party and to the country as a whole.
“Here’s what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” Mitt Romney says, according to a leaked transcript of his remarks.
“His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University,” he is quoted as saying.
Mitt Romney will also warn that the nomination of Donald Trump would pave the way to the presidency for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump meanwhile accused Mitt Romney of having run “one of the worst races in presidential history” and “working with the establishment” to prevent a Republican win.
Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama.
Several GOP leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, have spoken out against Donald Trump’s controversial policies and positions in recent days.
Donald Trump’s latest controversy centers on his failure to disavow David Duke, a leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, who endorsed him. He later said he had on several occasions in the past disavowed David Duke.
Paul Ryan said on March 1 that nominees “must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people’s prejudices”.
Donald Trump rival Marco Rubio indicated in his speech on Super Tuesday that the Republican establishment was unlikely to back the former reality TV star.
According to the New York Times, some GOP donors are already trying to raise funds for an anti-Trump effort.
According to new reports, Nicole Scherzinger will star in a TV remake of the 1987 classic movie Dirty Dancing.
Nicole Scherzinger has been cast as Penny, the dance partner of lead character Jonny Castle, the Hollywood Reporter said.
Colt Prattes is to play Jonny Castle, with Oscar-nominee Abigail Breslin playing opposite him as Baby Houseman in the ABC show.
Photo Facebook
Nicole Scherzinger tweeted she was “so excited” to join the cast.
The three-hour remake, which will be directed by The Sapphires director Wayne Blair, has yet to get a transmission date.
Set in the summer of 1963, Dirty Dancing is the song-and-dance love story about 17-year-old Baby, originally played by Jennifer Grey, who falls for her working-class dance instructor, Johnny Castle – played by Patrick Swayze.
The role of Penny was played by Cynthia Rhodes in the 1987 movie.
Eleanor Bergstein, who wrote the screenplay for the original movie and was also behind the successful Dirty Dancing musical, is on board for the small screen adaptation to be produced by Lionsgate TV.
In 2011, Lionsgate had announced plans to remake the movie for the big screen, with Kenny Ortega – who choreographed the original and directed High School Musical – at the helm.
Ex-Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon was killed in a car crash on March 2, one day after he was accused of fixing bids for oil and gas leases.
Aubrey McClendon, 56, was the only person in the vehicle when it smashed into a concrete pillar in Oklahoma, police reported.
He was charged on March 1 with conspiring with two energy companies to rig the price of oil and gas contracts.
Aubrey McClendon, who stepped down from Chesapeake in 2013, denied the charges.
In a statement on March 1, Aubrey McClendon said: “Anyone who knows me, my business record and the industry in which I have worked for 35 years, knows that I could not be guilty of violating any antitrust laws.”
Police are still investigating the cause of the accident, but said the car was burned so badly it was difficult to tell if Aubrey McClendon was wearing a seatbelt.
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma City police did say he “drove straight into the wall”.
On March 1, the Department of Justice accused Aubrey McClendon of having been involved in an anti-trust scheme between 2007 and 2012.
The scheme involved two companies – which the DoJ did not name – deciding who would have the winning bid for oil and gas lessees ahead of the offer and then splitting the contract after it was awarded.
Aubrey McClendon stepped down as the head of Chesapeake Energy in 2013 amid concerns about his heavy spending and a shakeup in the company’s corporate governance.
He is considered one of the fathers of the US fracking industry.
Aubrey McClendon went on to found American Energy Partners where he served as chairman and chief executive. He was also a partial owner of the basketball team the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Toshiba shares jumped more than 10% on March 3 on reports the company was about to secure substantial new loans for its restructuring efforts.
The Japanese electronics giant is in talks with several local lenders over money it needs to reorganize its business in the wake of a massive accounting scandal.
Toshiba is hoping for loans of up to 250 billion yen ($2.2 billion), said Nikkei daily.
The company confirmed it was in talks but said the details had not been decided.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank were like to provide the funds as early as this month, Nikkei reports.
The funds are vital for Toshiba’s survival as it streamlines its bloated businesses, whose poor performances had gone unnoticed during almost a decade of false accounting.
The restructuring comes after Toshiba admitted in 2015 it had overstated its profits by $1.3 billion over seven years.
As part of the efforts to balance its books, Toshiba has announced major job cuts and the selling of several plants and units to external investors.
Toshiba currently employs almost 200,000 people.
Its shares have lost about 40% of their value since April 2015, when news of the profit overstatement began to emerge.
In July 2015, Toshiba’s chief executive, president and six other high-level executives resigned from the company.
Toshiba, which is involved in a wide-range of industries from electronics to nuclear energy, was founded in 1875 and launched the world’s first mass-market laptop in 1985.
According to South Korea’s defense ministry, North Korea has fired several short-range projectiles into the sea hours after the UN Security Council unanimously voted to impose some of its strongest ever sanctions against the country.
The projectiles were fired at about 10:00 local time from Wonsan on the east coast, a South Korean spokesman told the Yonhap news agency.
He said they were still trying to determine exactly what was fired.
Yonhap quoted officials as saying all the objects fell into the sea.
The new UN measures are a response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and satellite launch, both of which violated existing sanctions.
They will result in all cargo going to and from the country being inspected, while 16 new individuals and 12 organizations have been blacklisted.
The US and North Korea’s long-standing ally China spent seven weeks discussing the new sanctions.
President Barack Obama said the international community was “speaking with one voice” to tell the North it “must abandon these dangerous programs and choose a better path for its people”.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye welcomed the sanctions, saying she hoped North Korea “will now abandon its nuclear development program and embark on a path of change”.
North Korea insists its missile program is purely scientific in nature, but the United States, South Korea and even its ally China say such launches like the one which put a satellite in orbit last month are aimed at developing inter-continental ballistic missiles.
Facebook is being investigated in Germany for suspected abuse of its dominant market position.
Germany’s federal cartel office suspects Facebook’s privacy terms violate data protection laws.
The German authorities are looking into whether Facebook’s “dominance” means those terms also constituted an abuse of market power. The formal probe is the first of its kind the social network has faced.
Facebook said it was confident it complied with the law.
“Dominant companies are subject to special obligations,” said Andreas Mundt, the president of the cartel office.
“These include the use of adequate terms of service as far as these are relevant to the market
“For advertising-financed internet services such as Facebook, user data are hugely important.
“For this reason, it is essential to also examine under the aspect of abuse of market power whether the consumers are sufficiently informed about the type and extent of data collected.”
Photo Getty Images
Andreas Mundt’s investigation would focus on Facebook’s US operation, as well as its German and Irish subsidiaries, the cartel office said in a statement released on March 2.
The investigation found that Facebook was dominant in the social media market and relied on advertising revenues generated on the basis of a “large amount of personal user data”.
Users had to agree to this collection of data as a condition of their being able to use the network.
“It is difficult for users to understand and assess the scope of the agreement accepted by them,” it said.
“There is considerable doubt as to the admissibility of this procedure, in particular under applicable national data protection law.
“If there is a connection between such an infringement and market dominance, this could also constitute an abusive practice under competition law.”
A Facebook representative said: “We are confident that we comply with the law, and we look forward to working with the Federal Cartel Office to answer their questions.”
The German authorities are working in “close contact” with the European Commission, the competition authorities of the other EU member states and data and consumer protection officers.
European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said the EU executive shared the view of the German cartel office that the mere infringement of data protection rules by a dominant company did not automatically amount to a competition violation.
“However, it cannot be excluded that a behavior that violates data protection rules could also be relevant when investigating a possible violation of EU competition rules,” Ricardo Cardoso added, while declining specific comment on the new case.
Speaking in Germany in January, the European commissioner for competition Margrethe Vestager said her agency was taking a harder look at whether the collection of vast amounts of consumer data by big internet companies violated competition rules.
Shell is being sued in London for the second time in five years over spills in the Niger Delta.
Two communities are claiming compensation and want the oil giant to clean up their land.
Shell said it is at an “early stage” in reviewing the claims and that the case should be heard in Nigeria.
The Ogale community of about 40,000 people in Rivers State, on the coast of Nigeria, who are mainly farmers or fishermen, are some of the claimants.
Spills since 1989 have meant they don’t have clean drinking water, farmland or rivers, their claim says.
It points to a November 2015 report by Amnesty International which says four spill sites Shell says it planned to clean up are still contaminated.
The first court hearing at the Technology and Construction Court, held on March 2, found that the claimants can lodge a case against Shell’s Nigerian business, known as Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). Shell declined to comment on the ruling.
Amnesty International’s findings followed a 2011 report by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) which found water contaminated with oil by-products including benzene, thought to be a carcinogen. It suggested a cleanup, but said a “sustainable recovery” of the area could take up to 30 years.
Shell says it has agreed a clean-up plan.
“In mid-2015 SPDC JV, along with the government, UNEP and representatives of the Ogoni community, agreed to an 18-month roadmap to fast-track the environmental clean-up and remediation of Ogoniland which includes a governance framework,” the company said in a statement.
The Bille community, who are mainly fishermen and are the other party to sue, claims Shell should be liable for “failing to protect their pipelines from damage caused by third parties”, according to law firm Leigh Day.
Pipelines in the area have been targets for thieves who steal crude oil and try to refine it locally. This has lead to more spills and damage though explosions.
In January 2015, Shell agreed to an $84 million settlement with residents of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta for two oil spills.
The same law firm, Leigh Day, said their 15,600 clients would receive $3,300 each for losses caused by the spills.
The remaining $30 million would be left for the community, which Leigh Day said was “devastated by the two massive oil spills in 2008 and 2009”.
There are more than 700,000 compensation claims filed each year in America. Many people take this course of action to get the money they think they deserve. It can help them to pay for food and keep a roof over their head when they are recovering from the injury they sustained. But which are the most common types of personal injury claims?
Road Accidents
There are many road accidents, and many people get injured in them who have done nothing wrong. Anyone who gets injured on their road through no fault of their own is within their rights to pursue a compensation claim. There are about six million car accidents on US roads every year, and that leads to a lot of compensation claims. As soon as the driver or passenger has recovered from the injuries, they can use those medical reports as proof. That documentation can be very useful when it comes to securing compensation for the accident. It’s a long process, but the success rates are pretty high.
Work Injuries
When someone gets injured at work, they usually look for someone to blame. This is understandable because employers have a duty to look after their employees at work. If their workplaces are not safe, then accidents will happen, and compensation will have to be paid out. Contacting compensation lawyers and pursuing a claim is what the injured person will quickly do. Most workers don’t like their bosses, so they’re not going to shy away from taking their money. The only way to make sure that this doesn’t happen is for employers to make sure that workplaces are safe. Strong health and safety measures are vital to keeping everyone protected from potential harm and hazards.
If a patient can prove that they were injured by the actions of a doctor or medical professionals, they can claim medical malpractice. When this happens, and the evidence all checks out, the money that the victim can claim can be huge. The process isn’t quite as straightforward as that though. An independent medical professional has to look at the case and verify that the original doctor acted incorrectly. If all that goes to plan, the claim should be successful though. Any expert witnesses that were present can help your case if they’re willing to testify for you as well.
Accidents Caused by Negligence
There are millions of accidents every year in which people fall over or slip on a floor. These kinds of accidents often get attributed to someone’s negligence. If someone has cleaned a floor in a public place and failed to put up a sign making that fact clear, they could be negligent. This kind of thing happens each and every day. So, it’s not a surprise that this is one of the most common forms of personal injury claim in the US at the moment. Sometimes, the person who got injured is persuaded to sign a waiver or settle the issue out of court before they can take it further.
Western Indonesia has been hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reports.
There have been no immediate reports of damage.
According to the USGS, the earthquake struck at 19:49 local time. It said the epicenter was 500 miles south-west of the city of Padang, and 15 miles deep.
Indonesian officials issued a tsunami warning for the regions of West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Aceh.
Australia also issued a tsunami warning for Cocos Island and Christmas Island in the Pacific. It also issued a tsunami watch for Western Australia but this was later lifted.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said evacuations were not required on the islands but advised people to “get out of the water and move away from the immediate water’s edge”, because of the risk of dangerous waves and currents.
Authorities in India said their initial assessment was that there was no tsunami threat. Sri Lankan media also reported the country’s disaster management centre as saying there was no threat.
The earthquake was felt strongly in Padang for a few seconds, AFP reports, with people running out of their homes to higher ground.
Traffic ground to a halt and there was a sense of panic on the streets.
In 2004, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake triggered the world’s deadliest ever tsunami, killing more than 200,000 people.
Gabriela Zapata, a woman who had a son with Bolivian President Evo Morales, says she will present her child to the media “at a convenient time” to prove he is alive.
President Evo Morales, 56, says he had a two-year relationship with Gabriela Zapata, now 28, from 2005.
He has acknowledged that Gabriela Zapata gave birth to his son in 2007 but alleges she told him the child died shortly after being born.
Gabriela Zapata’s aunt said on February 27 that the boy was alive and in Bolivia.
News of the relationship between Gabriela Zapata and Evo Morales first emerged on February 3 as part of a journalist’s investigation into alleged influence peddling.
Speaking on Bolivian television, journalist Carlos Valverde disclosed that a Chinese engineering company, CAMC, had been given lucrative state contracts.
Gabriela Zapata until recently was a senior manager at the Chinese company.
Carlos Valverde also broke the news of the previously undisclosed relationship between Gabriela Zapata and Evo Morales.
He said the two had had a child together.
Two days later, Evo Morales spoke in public for the first time about the relationship.
“I met Gabriela Zapata Montano in 2005. It is true that she was my partner,” he said.
“In 2007 we had a child, but unfortunately, he died. We had some problems and then we grew distant,” the president added.
Prosecutors opened an investigation into the allegations of influence peddling and on February 26 ordered the arrest of Gabriela Zapata.
She has been charged with money laundering, embezzlement and abuse of influence.
Gabriela Zapata’s aunt, Pilar Guzman, who visited her in detention on February 27 was the first to allege publicly that Evo Morales’s and Gabriela Zapata’s son was still alive.
“The child lives. I held him in my arms when he was four months old,” Gabriela Zapata told reporters on live television.
“The child is called Ernesto Fidel. He’s here [in La Paz] and is between eight and nine years old now,” she said.
A lawyer for Gabriela Zapata later also said that the child was alive and well.
Evo Morales seems to have been taken by surprise by the news.
At first he said that if his son was alive he would like to meet him and “bring him up”.
He also asked a court to order Gabriela Zapata’s family to let him see the child “in private” within five days.
On March 1, senior government ministers said they were “absolutely convinced that sadly, the boy has passed away”.
They did not say what they based their information on.
Pilar Guzman insisted on March 1 that the boy was alive and that her niece would “introduce him before the international media at a convenient time”.
She said Gabriela Zapata insisted on the presence of the media “for security reasons”, although she did not explain what threats she feared.
“At that time, the boy will talk, he is not a small child who doesn’t understand, he is old enough and knows what is happening,” she said.
Evo Morales, who has never married, has two children from previous relationships. He has acknowledged both.
Moody’s has cut China’s outlook from “stable” to “negative”.
While reaffirming its current debt rating, the US ratings agency warned that reforms were needed to avoid a downgrade.
Moody’s said the change in outlook was based on expectations that Beijing’s fiscal strength would continue to decline.
The negative outlook comes on the heels of fresh data suggesting China’s economy is continuing to lose steam.
Moody’s said it was concerned over China’s incomplete implementation of much needed reforms.
“Without credible and efficient reforms, China’s GDP growth would slow more markedly as a high debt burden dampens business investment and demographics turn increasingly unfavorable,” the agency said in a note.
“Government debt would increase more sharply than we currently expect.”
Moody’s did confirm China’s current Aa3 rating, saying that there was still time to address the current economic imbalances and implement reforms.
Just one week ago, China sought to assure the global economic community over the strength of its economy.
At the G20 meeting in Shanghai, China’s finance minister Lou Jiwei insisted Beijing could tackle the pressures it is currently facing.
China’s economy, the second-biggest in the world, is growing at the slowest rate in 25 years as it attempts to move from an export-led nation to one led by consumption and services.
The slowdown in China’s economy has created considerable uncertainty in financial markets and has led to sharp falls in commodity prices.
North Korea has announced it will no longer take part in UN Human Rights Council session examining its rights record.
Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong accused the council of “politicization, selectivity and double standards” and of “singling out” North Korea for criticism.
The UN council has repeatedly criticized North Korea over its treatment of its citizens.
The move is likely to further isolate North Korea, which is due to face new sanctions.
The UN Security Council is set to vote on March 2 on the new measures, in response to North Korea’s fourth test of a nuclear weapon and its launching of a satellite.
Both moves contravened existing sanctions.
In his statement to the Council, Ri Su-yong also accused the US and others of paying “so-called North Korean defectors” for their testimony.
He said North Korea would “never, ever be bound” by any resolution adopted by the Council.
A UN report in 2014 accused North Korea of “systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights”, including disappearances, forced labor, torture, rape and infanticide.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have each won the most states on Super Tuesday.
The count is still on but Donald Trump has so far won seven states, compared with only two taken by his closest rival, Ted Cruz, and one by Marco Rubio.
Speaking in his home state of Texas, Ted Cruz urged other Republicans to quit the race and join him against Donald Trump.
Democrat Bernie Sanders has won in four states.
Super Tuesday saw 11 states voting, from Massachusetts in the east to Alaska in the north-west. A 12th state, Colorado, held a caucus – won by Bernie Sanders – but does not actually select its delegates until April.
Super Tuesday allocates nearly a quarter of Republican delegates, and about a fifth of Democratic delegates, who will elect their respective presidential candidates at party conventions in July. No candidate has yet won enough delegates to secure their party’s nomination.
Democrat Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, and Republican Donald Trump, a property tycoon, entered Super Tuesday as favorites to win the vast majority of states for their respective parties.
In a victory speech, Hillary Clinton appeared to already be looking towards a potential presidential race against Donald Trump, saying: “The stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower.”
Donald Trump insisted that he was a “unifier” who could put internal fighting in the Republican Party behind him.
“Once we get all this finished, I’m going after one person – Hillary Clinton,” he told reporters in Florida, where he has been campaigning ahead of the state’s vote later this month.
Donald Trump insisted he had “expanded the Republican party”, referring to higher turnout from a broad demographic in states that have already voted.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz desperately needed to win in his home state to have any chance of staying in the race.
Pointing to his three primary wins against Donald Trump to date in the season, he told Republicans: “I ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together, united.”
Donald Trump has stunned the Republican establishment to become the party’s front-runner.
He has faced heavy criticism this week over his failure to disavow David Duke, a leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, who endorsed him.
Donald Trump later said he had on several occasions in the past disavowed David Duke.
Hillary Clinton had already secured three wins in the first four early voting states, polling significantly among blocs of black voters.
Bernie Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has put up an unexpectedly strong challenge against her since his sweeping victory in New Hampshire last month.
Addressing cheering supporters at his victory speech in Vermont, Bernie Sanders aimed a jibe at the Republican front-runner saying: “We are not going to let the Donald Trumps of the world divide us.”
The proportion of votes won equates to the number of delegates who will then go on to the Democratic and Republican parties’ national conventions in July to officially choose the nominees for the presidency.
The election itself, on November 8, will see America vote for a successor to Barack Obama.
