Markit’s latest survey shows how Paris attacks have impacted France’s service sector.
The company said a rapid fall-off in trade was behind its index falling from 52.7 in October to 51.3 in November.
“We think the key reason for the slowing in services growth is due to the attacks,” Chris Williamson, Markit’s chief economist said.
Markit said 60% of survey responses from services sector companies were received after the 13 November attacks.
The services index remains above 50, meaning that it is continuing to grow, but at a slower pace.
The “flash” manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) rose to a 19-month high, and Chris Williamson said the rest of the survey data suggested “a more encouraging picture of France continuing to lift itself out of its gloom”.
The survey comes after the boss of the industrial conglomerate Siemens warned that the Paris terrorist attacks and political instability in Europe were making companies more reluctant to invest.
Joe Kaeser told the Financial Times: “The biggest economic damage from these attacks is on confidence and confidence is a crucial element in this phase. It is indispensable to help countries exit the crisis.”
Yet overall, European businesses reported the fastest rates of growth in business activity and employment for four and a half years in November, according to Markit.
Its “flash” PMI for the eurozone rose to 54.4 from 53.9 in November – the survey’s fastest rate of expansion since May 2011.
Germany, which saw growth in manufacturing and services accelerate to a three-month high, helped drive the overall index higher.
Chris Williamson said the data put the 19-nation euro area on track for growth of 0.4 to 0.5% in the final quarter of the year.
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi recently indicated he was disappointed with the current rate of growth and suggested policymakers could take fresh action to boost the economy.
The ECB has an inflation target of 2%, but prices in the eurozone have stayed low, with CPI at 0.1% in October.
American journalist Jason Rezaian has been sentenced to an unspecified prison term in Iran, the country’s judiciary has said.
The sentence follows the Washington Post reporter’s conviction last month on charges that include espionage.
Iranian officials did not give details about the sentence but said in a statement it included jail time.
Jason Rezaian, 39, has been detained in Iran for more than a year. The Post has dismissed the charges as absurd.
“In brief, it is a prison sentence,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said in a statement on Iranian state TV.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei added that the verdict is “not finalized” – referring to an expected appeal.
Jason Rezaian’s lawyer, Leila Ahsan, told the Associated Press news agency she had not been informed of the verdict or the details of the sentence.
The foreign editor of the Washington Post, Douglas Jehl, said in a statement that Jason Rezaian’s “trial and sentence are a sham, and he should be released immediately”. He added that the journalist had already spent 487 days in prison.
Jason Rezaian, his wife, who is also a journalist, and two photojournalists were arrested in July 2014 in Iran. Jason Rezaian was the only one of the group not to be released.
The Washington Post‘s Tehran bureau chief since 2012, Jason Rezaian was charged with espionage and distributing propaganda against the Islamic Republic.
Jason Rezaian is a dual Iranian-American citizen and was tried in four hearings behind closed doors. He was convicted in October.
Earlier reports said Jason Rezaian could face 10 to 20 years in prison.
At least 16 people are being treated at New Orleans hospitals after an apparent shooting at theh city’s Bunny Friend Park, police say.
Police spokesman Tyler Gamble said officers were on their way to break up a big crowd at the playground when shots were fired.
Photo Getty Images
Ambulances took 10 people to hospital, Tyler Gamble said, and others were taken by private vehicles.
It is yet not known what started the shooting or how severe the injuries are.
According to Tyler Gamble, there were two groups at the park – one had walked there as part of a neighborhood parade, while others were watching or participating in a video being made in the park.
Witnesses told local TV station WWL that there were about 500 people at the park and that two gunmen opened fire in the crowd.
Sixteen suspects have been arrested in Brussels anti-terror raids, but suspected Paris attacks gunman Salah Abdeslam remains at large, Belgian authorities have said.
Some 22 raids were carried out on November 22 across Brussels and Charleroi, the federal prosecutor’s spokesman said.
Brussels remains on the highest level of terror alert. Universities, schools and the metro system will stay closed on November 23.
More than 130 died and 350 were injured in the Paris attacks 10 days ago.
Police fired two shots at a car during an operation in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, injuring one suspect who was later arrested.
Photo Reuters
No weapons or explosives were found during the searches on November 22, spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told a news conference.
French President Francois Hollande said France planned to intensify its air strikes on ISIS targets in Syria.
“We will intensify our strikes, choosing targets that will do the most damage possible to this army of terrorists,” Francois Hollande said.
He kicks off a week of diplomatic efforts to rally support to crush the group: after meeting UK PM David Cameron on November 23, he will meet President Barack Obama on November 24, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on November 25 and Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 26.
The French government says the aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, will be operational in the Mediterranean on November 23 and ready to act against ISIS militants in Syria.
Brussels has been on lockdown all weekend amid a manhunt for Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of being among the assailants who killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.
Members of Eagles of Death Metal described the horror of the Bataclan concert hall massacre in their first interview since Paris attack.
Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has recalled the horror he witnessed inside the concert hall as three gunmen opened fire, killing 89 people during the November 13 massacre.
Jesse Hughes said a group of fans who hid in the band’s dressing room were found by the gunmen and killed except for one who hid under Hughes’s leather jacket.
Photo Facebook
In a clip from the interview with Vice News to be released in full next week, an emotional Jesse Hughes said: “A great reason why so many were killed was because so many people wouldn’t leave their friends. So many people put themselves in front of people.”
“Several people hid in our dressing room,” Jesse Hughes told Vice.com from Venice, California.
“And the killers were able to get in and killed every one of them – except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket.”
The assault on the Bataclan concert hall was the deadliest of six coordinated attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris. Among those killed inside the venue were the band’s merchandise manager and three staffers from its record label.
Following the attacks in Paris, EODM canceled the remainder of its European tour and flew back to California.
Five days after Paris attacks, Eagles of Death Metal said in a statement: “While the band is now home safe, we are horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France. Our thoughts and hearts are first and foremost with our brother Nick Alexander; our record company comrades Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser, and Manu Perez; and all the friends and fans whose lives were taken in Paris, as well as their friends, families, and loved ones.”
Brussels is extending the highest level of terror alert because of the “serious and imminent” threat of Paris-style attacks, Belgium’s PM Charles Michel has announced.
The prime minister added that universities, schools and the metro would stay shut.
Belgium’s capital has been on lockdown all weekend, amid a manhunt for suspected Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam.
ISIS militants, some of them from Brussels, killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.
Security forces completed several operations in Brussels on Sunday night, the AFP news agency reports. The police had urged the public not to report its movements on social media.
On November 22, PM Charles Michel told reporters in Brussels that the authorities fear “an attack similar to the one in Paris, with several individuals who could also possibly launch several attacks at the same time in multiple locations”.
Photo EPA
Earlier, Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said the danger to Belgium was not tied to Salah Abdeslam alone.
“The threat is broader than the one suspected terrorist,” he told Flemish broadcaster VRT.
It was not clear if Jan Jambon was referring to those involved in the Paris attacks, or others who might be planning attacks in Belgium.
Soldiers joined police officers on patrols in Brussels over the weekend. Many public spaces in the usually bustling capital were deserted, as people heeded official warnings to avoid crowds.
The Belgian authorities have so far charged three people with involvement in the Paris attacks, claimed by ISIS.
French media have reported that nine militants carried out the attacks, and seven died on the same night.
One of the men who drove Salah Abdeslam to Belgium told his lawyer that he was dressed in a “big jacket” and may have had a suicide belt.
The lawyer, Carine Couquelet, told French TV this raised questions, including the possibility that Salah Abdeslam may have been supposed to blow himself up in Paris but had had second thoughts.
Friends of Salah Abdeslam told ABC News they had spoken to him on Skype and said he was hiding in Brussels and desperately trying to get to Syria.
They said Salah Abdeslam was caught between European authorities hunting him and ISIS members who were “watching him” and were unhappy that he had not detonated his suicide belt.
Argentina’s opposition candidate Mauricio Macri has won the presidential election runoff in, exit polls suggest.
Polls by taken by TV stations shortly after voting closed indicated Mauricio Macri, 56, won, without giving a breakdown.
Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, was up against Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires province.
Loud cheers erupted at Mauricio Macri’s campaign headquarters at the news, Reuters reported.
Party insiders claimed a five- to eight-percentage-point lead.
If the result is confirmed, it will be the first time in more than a decade that Argentina’s center-right opposition has wrested the presidency from the center-left Peronists.
Photo Getty Images
A spokesman for DanielScioli said they would wait for official figures to come in before commenting.
Neither candidate managed to win the first round of voting in October outright, forcing a runoff – the first in the country’s history.
DanielScioli was marginally ahead in the first round, with 36.7% to 34.5%, but has lost ground to his rival in the month since.
Mauricio Macri, the leader of the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) coalition, went into today’s vote with a comfortable lead in opinion polls.
He campaigned on pledges to bring new investment into the ailing economy, tackle crime and fight corruption.
The son of one of Argentina’s richest men, Mauricio Macri had a long career in business before entering politics.
A close ally of current President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Daniel Scioli had been expected to win by a greater margin in October.
Modern Family actor Reid Ewing, who plays Dylan in the hit sitcom, has revealed his struggle with body dysmorphia.
In a letter published by Huffington Post, Reid Ewing describes his mental torment, explaining how he felt so ugly and he got surgery after surgery.
Reid Ewing, 27, went under the knife in 2008 when he was 19 years old. He now regrets it.
According to experts, body dysmorphia is an anxiety disorder that causes a person to have a distorted view of how they look and to spend a lot of time worrying about their appearance.
For example, they may be convinced that a barely visible scar is a major flaw that everyone is staring at, or that their nose looks abnormal.
Having body dysmorphia does not mean the person is vain or self-obsessed.
Photo Pinterest
“I genuinely believed if I had one procedure I would suddenly look like Brad Pitt,” Reid Ewing explains.
A doctor then “quickly determined that large cheek implants would address the issues I had with my face, and a few weeks later I was on the operating table.”
Reid Ewing remembers how he woke up screaming from pain, with tears down his face.
He describes his face, after all the swelling went down, as “horrendous”.
Reid Ewing asked for more surgery because he was unhappy with the change but the doctor said he had have to wait for six months.
For the next couple of years Reid Ewing continued to have more cosmetic surgery, including chin implants but they would cause new “problems” he felt needed fixing.
Reid Ewing was filming Modern Family while this was happening.
Adele’s new album 25 has been blocked from streaming on Spotify, Apple Music or other services.
Adele, 27, is thought to have followed in the steps of Taylor Swift and made the decision not to put her music on the services.
Spotify says it hopes Adele will change her mind “very soon”.
However, fans can buy 25 in music stores and on sites like iTunes and Amazon.
Adele’s previous albums 19 and 21 as well as her current single Hello are still available for streaming.
The singer is said to be one of the few superstars who has enough influence to decide how she wants people to listen to her music.
A statement from Spotify said: “We love and respect Adele, as do her 24 million fans on Spotify. We hope that she will give those fans the opportunity to enjoy 25 on Spotify alongside 19 and 21 very soon.”
The new album is not available to stream on Apple Music, but Apple said it was “thrilled” to offer it for download on iTunes.
Another artist who made the same decision as Adele was Taylor Swift, who pulled her music from Spotify in 2014 following a row over the royalties paid by streaming outlets.
Crimea has been left without power after pylons carrying power lines which supply electricity from Ukraine were reportedly blown up on November 21.
According to local reports, all four power lines were cut, leaving the region’s two million inhabitants without electricity.
Images circulated on social media appeared to show Ukrainian flags attached to the damaged pylons.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014, but the Ukrainian authorities have continued to supply power to the area.
Crimean authorities said they had managed to partially reconnect the cities of Simferopol, Yalta and Saky using generators.
Photo AFP
Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Sheremet said the peninsula’s hospitals had backup power sources and would not be affected.
The Crimean Emergencies Ministry has declared a state of emergency and put rescue teams on high alert.
“Crimea is completely cut off,” Viktor Plakida, the director of Crimea Energy, told Russia’s Tass news agency.
A local emergency response official told Russia’s Tass news agency that Crimea was “operating in standalone mode”.
Crimea can only produce half the power it needs, Mikhail Sheremet said.
Two of the four main power lines were cut in an earlier attack on November 20, reports said.
Ukrainian authorities said they encountered activists blockading the site when they tried to repair the damaged pylons.
“The nature of the damage shows that it took place as a result of shelling or the use of explosive devices,” Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo said in a statement.
Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group native to the peninsula who oppose Russian rule, held a protest at the site of the broken power lines in Kherson region, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
Five people, including two journalists and a top priest or monsignor, have been charged by the Vatican over the leaking and publication of secret documents.
The leaked documents were cited in two books, by journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, alleging misspending and corruption at the Vatican.
The journalists deny claims that they exerted pressure to obtain information.
Two members of a papal commission advising on economic reform, and an assistant, were also charged.
Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda, and fellow commission member, public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, were arrested early in November.
Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi and Avarice by Emiliano Fittipaldi, included details of alleged corruption, theft and uncontrolled spending in the Vatican.
In a statement, the Holy See said magistrates “notified the accused and their lawyers of the charges filed… for the unlawful disclosure of information and confidential documents”.
Francesca Chaouqui was released shortly after her arrest after pledging to co-operate with authorities. Monsignor Lucio Valejo Balda remains in a Vatican cell.
Both, along with assistant Nicola Maio, are accused of forming “a brotherhood of crime” and stealing documents, the Vatican said.
The two journalists have been charged with exerting pressure to obtain the information.
Emiliano Fittipaldi told local media he was “stunned” by the decision.
“Maybe I’m naive but I believed they would investigate those I denounced for criminal activity, not the person that revealed the crimes,” he said.
“I understand they are seriously embarrassed in the Vatican over the things in my book, especially because they could not deny any of it. But I didn’t expect a criminal trial.”
Gianluigi Nuzzi told Reuters he had “never applied pressure on anyone”. He will discuss whether to attend a November 24 hearing with his lawyers.
Reporters without Borders issued a statement saying the journalists had “just exercised their right to provide information in the public interest and should not be treated as criminals in a country that supposedly respects media freedom”.
If convicted, all five could be jailed for up to eight years.
Bangladeshi opposition leaders Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid have been executed for war crimes committed during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan.
The two politicians were hanged in Dhaka’s central jail.
They were convicted of genocide and rape – charges they denied.
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury has been an influential politician – he was elected member of Bangladeshi parliament six times. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid was a top leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said they were hanged after President Abdul Hamid rejected appeals for clemency by the two men.
However, family members have dismissed reports that the men had made any such appeals, which would have also required admissions of guilt.
“My father said he did not seek any mercy,” Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury’s son, Humam Qauder Chowdhury, told AFP news agency, after meeting his father for the last time hours before his execution.
“He has always said he’s innocent.”
The Supreme Court upheld their sentences earlier this month.
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was the most senior leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party to be sentenced for crimes against humanity.
Two years ago, a special war crimes tribunal found him guilty of nine out of 23 charges including genocide, arson and persecuting people on religious and political grounds.
The prosecution said that his father’s residence in Chittagong was turned into a torture cell during the war.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid was the secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami. He was sentenced to death in July 2013.
He was accused of responsibility for the killings of a number of pro-independence Bangladeshi leaders and intellectuals.
The tribunal found him guilty of five charges, including abduction and murder.
Bangladesh’s government says the war crimes trials are necessary to bring murderers to justice.
However, the opposition says they have been used to persecute them and human rights groups have said the tribunal does not meet international standards.
Bitwalking is a digital crypto-currency that is generated by human movement.
Once installed on your phone, the free app converts steps to Bitwalking dollars (BW$).
The new digital currency will be earned by walking, unlike other digital currencies such as Bitcoins that are “mined” by computers.
The app counts and verifies users’ steps, with walkers earning approximately 1 BW$ for about 10,000 steps (about 5 miles).
Initially, users will be given the chance to spend what they earn in an online store, or trade them for cash.
The project founders, Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi, have attracted more than $10 million of initial funding from mainly Japanese investors to help launch the currency and create the bank that verifies steps and any transfers.
Electronics giant Murata is working on a wearable wristband that will provide an alternative to carrying a smartphone and show how many BW$ the wearer has earned.
Shoe manufacturers are poised to accept the currency, and a UK bank is in talks to partner with the project at one of the UK’s biggest music festivals next year.
Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi have a track record in disruptive technology that could help developing nations as much as richer ones.
In 2014, they launched Keepod, a $7 USB stick that acts like a computer in Nairobi, Kenya.
The idea of Bitwalking is to take advantage of the trend for fitness trackers by offering an additional incentive to keep fit.
The global scheme plans to partner with sportswear brands, health services, health insurance firms, environmental groups, and potentially advertisers who could be offered unique insights into the audiences they are targeting.
In the future, employers may be invited to take part in a scheme that would be offered to their employees to encourage them to stay fitter, with the currency they earn converted and then paid alongside their salaries.
In developed nations the average person would earn around 15 BW$ a month, but it is hoped that in poorer countries where people have to walk further for work, school, or simply to collect water, the Bitwalking scheme could help transform lives.
The impact Bitwalking could make in developing countries isn’t lost on the founders. It is one of the central reasons for creating the currency. In Malawi, one of the African nations to join at the launch of the project, the average rural wage is just US$1.5 a day.
Carl Meyer, the Bitwalking manager for Malawi, has set up the first two Bitwalking hubs in Lilongwe and Mthuntama where local people will be trained how to trade the BW$ online for US$ or the local currency, Malawi Kwacha.
Photo Tumblr
Eventually an automatic online exchange is planned that will match up buyers with sellers and a rough exchange rate will begin to emerge.
The Go! app for iOS and Android devices will initially be offered to a handful of countries, including the UK, Japan, Malawi, and Kenya, to give the organizers a chance to iron out any difficulties before other countries come on board.
The idea of making money by simply walking isn’t completely new. Several start-ups have tried to connect keeping fit to earning rewards but most have failed to measure movement accurately enough to avoid scammers.
Bitwalking hasn’t officially released the algorithm used to verify steps but says it uses the handsets’ GPS position and Wi-Fi connections to calculate the distance traveled.
The team has created its own walking algorithm to verify users’ workouts after testing Google’s and finding that steps could be spoofed.
The phone reports the speed and type of movement as measured by the accelerometer.
At its launch the total amount someone can claim in one day will be capped at around 3 BW$ (roughly 30,000 steps) and running multiple accounts will be banned.
The success of the scheme is likely to depend on how much interest there is from established companies such as big sportswear brands, health insurance firms, or charity and environmental groups all of whom have an incentive to work with the fitness sector.
In Japan, it is not unusual for companies to offer employees rewards for fitness activities. Bitwalking’s founders hope their project could help extend this idea to other nations.
Japan’s largest convenience chain store, Lawson, runs a successful scheme that pays its workers up to $50 a year to eat healthily and keep fit.
However, the Lawson scheme is based on promises and trust, so unlike Bitwalking it is not verifiable. The vouchers earned cannot be traded for cash.
Despite the freedom to trade, it is likely that unless BW$ can be freely used to buy goods and services they are likely to drop in value from parity with the US$ – the point where the founders are launching it.
The online store will sell goods for the same price in BW$ as US$.
Keeping the virtual shelves of this online store fully stocked will be one of the first challenges.
The store isn’t expected to be open all the time, but plans are in place for other retailers and service providers to accept the currency in their stores too.
It is still not clear how a currency that appears to be so easy for users to produce could maintain its value, nor if the initial funding for the scheme will be sufficient to sustain it in the initial period while confidence in its value is being built up.
The Bitwalking website will invite people to apply to join the scheme so the company has some control over user numbers.
Because the new scheme necessarily tracks its users there will be data available that could be particularly valuable to advertisers – and accompanying concerns over privacy.
Transfers of the new currency will also be carefully monitored with transactions going through a central “bank” which verifies each deal using the block chain method used to transfer other crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin.
Users will have access to their own wallet which stores the Bitwalking dollars they have earned and will be able to transfer them to others via the app.
Chipotle shares have slumped more than 12% on November 20 after the Center for Disease and Control (CDC) reported more cases of E. coli linked to the Mexican restaurant chain.
According to the CDC, 45 people had been infected with a strain of E. coli, 43 of whom reported eating at a Chipotle restaurant.
The cases were in California, Minnesota, New York and Ohio.
Earlier this month, Chipotle temporarily closed 43 outlets in and around Washington and Oregon states.
This was after health officials investigated an E. coli outbreak that made at least 22 people ill.
Photo The Columbian
“The epidemiologic evidence available at this time suggests that a common meal item or ingredient served at Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants in several states is a likely source of this outbreak,” the CDC said.
“The investigation is still ongoing to determine what specific food is linked to illness.”
Chipotle shares are now down by almost 19% this year, valuing the company at $17.3 billion.
coli, short for Escherichia coli, is a type of bacterium present in the gut of humans and other animals.
Most strains are harmless but some can produce toxins that cause sickness in humans.
According to Mayo Clinic, E. coli infection typically begins three or four days after exposure to the bacteria, though you may become ill as soon as one day after to more than a week later. Signs and symptoms include:
Diarrhea, which may range from mild and watery to severe and bloody
Abdominal cramping, pain or tenderness
Nausea and vomiting, in some people
Contact your doctor if your diarrhea is persistent, severe or bloody.
Nike stocks have jumped more than 5% after the company announced a dividend rise, a massive share buyback and a stock split.
The $12 billion buy-back, 14% dividend increase and share split were revealed on November 19 and sent the sportswear giant’s shares up almost 7 cents to $132.65.
Photo Twitter
The buy-back will be spread out over the next four years.
Nike said it was “built for growth while staying committed to creating shareholder value.
“We’ve proved it time and again, having returned over $23 billion to shareholders over the last 14 years through repurchases and dividends.”
US-based Nike is the biggest sportswear maker in the world, and recently announced a sharp rise in profits thanks largely to rising sales in China.
Profits for the three months to the end of August were $1.18 billion, up nearly a quarter from a year earlier.
Facebook says it is testing some breakup tools that will help people to manage the new status.
The company will begin testing the breakup protection on mobile devices in the US before deciding whether to offer it to all of its 1.5 billion accountholders worldwide.
A judge in New York said using Facebook to send a divorce summons was completely legal.
Facebook’s new breakup tool is about altering what a former flame can see, but without them knowing you’ve done anything.
Photo Facebook
According to the company, the tool allows people to see less of a former partner’s name and profile picture around Facebook without having to unfriend or block them. Their posts won’t show up in News Feed and their name won’t be suggested when people write a new message or tag friends in photos. The tool will also limit the photos, videos or status updates that a former partner will see.
Facebook users can also edit who can see their past posts with a former partner and untag themselves from posts with that person.
If you have already broken up with someone and have adjusted your Facebook status accordingly, you can still go back and use these tools, says Facebook – they will be available from the Help Center at any time.
Mark Zuckerberg has announced he will take two months of paternity leave after the birth of his daughter.
The Facebook chief executive made the announcement on his timeline, calling it “a very personal decision”.
Photo Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “Priscilla and I are starting to get ready for our daughter’s arrival. We’ve been picking out our favorite childhood books and toys. We’ve also been thinking about how we’re going to take time off during the first months of her life. This is a very personal decision, and I’ve decided to take 2 months of paternity leave when our daughter arrives.”
Photo Facebook
Facebook allows its US employees to take up to 4 months of paid parental leave – time which can be used at once or throughout the child’s first year.
Mark Zuckerberg, 31, announced in July that he was expecting a baby girl with his wife, Priscilla Chan.
The Facebook founder did not say who would be replacing him at the company.
In his statement, accompanied by a picture of a pushchair and his dog, Mark Zuckerberg said: “Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families.”
Belgium has raised the terror alert in Brussels to the highest level fearing an attack “like the one that happened in Paris” last week, PM Charles Michel says.
The fear was that “several individuals with arms and explosives could launch an attack… perhaps even in several places”, Charles Michel said.
Some of the attackers who killed 130 people in Paris lived in Brussels.
Paris attacks leading suspect Salah Abdeslam is believed to have gone back to Belgium.
A huge manhunt is under way.
The Brussels metro is closed till November 22 and people have been told to avoid crowds.
Photo AP
These include shopping centers and concerts, and the authorities have also recommended that large events, including football matches, be canceled, a statement said.
The warning for the rest of Belgium stays at a lower level, which is still at a “serious” level.
The Belgian government will review the security situation in Brussels on November 22, Charles Michel added.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon earlier told reporters Belgium’s situation was “serious”, but “under control”, as he arrived for a special security cabinet meeting on November 21.
Turkish police say they have arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan descent on suspicion that he scouted out sites in Paris, Turkish news agencies report.
The Belgian authorities have so far charged three people with involvement in the attacks, which ISIS said it carried out.
Mali has declared a 10-day state of emergency following the attack on Radisson Blu Hotel by suspected Islamist militants in the capital, Bamako, in which gunmen killed 19 people.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has also declared three days of mourning.
Announcing the death toll, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said two militants had also been killed.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliate, al-Murabitoun, said they carried out the attack.
More than 130 hotel guests and staff were freed when Malian Special Forces, French Special Forces and off-duty US servicemen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel on November 20 to break the siege.
Photo Reuters
Among those killed were three Chinese business executives, and China’s President Xi Jinping has called the attack “cruel and savage”, Reuters news agency reports.
An American was also killed, and President Barack Obama said the attack was yet another reminder that the “scourge of terrorism” threatened many nations.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said Mali would “do everything to eradicate terrorism” in the country.
Earlier reports said at least 27 people had died.
A UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 12 bodies were found in the basement and 15 on the second floor.
It is not clear how many gunmen too part. Eyewitnesses said up to 13 entered the hotel shooting and shouting “God is greatest!” in Arabic – however the company that runs the hotel, Rezidor Group, said on November 20 that only two attackers were involved.
There is as yet no established link with the attacks in Paris one week ago that killed 130 people last week.
Mississippi House race has been won by Democrat Blaine “Bo” Eaton II after drawing a longer straw, an official way to break a tie in a legislative election for the state.
Bo Eaton met rival Mark Tullos to draw straws and the Republican drew the shorter one.
The Democrat’s fateful grasp of the longer straw gave him the victory, keeping Republicans from having a supermajority in the state house.
Mark Tullos, not admitting defeat, filed an appeal on November 20.
Bo Eaton, a farmer, said after winning: “There’s always happiness in a good crop year.”
Mark Tullos apparently left the room quickly and did not show emotion.
Bo Eaton, a 20-year incumbent, had said he did not approve of the straw-drawing, but he would accept the results.
“Look, my life’s a gamble,” he said, according to the New York Times.
“I’m a farmer. I depend on the weather and the rain. The statute’s clear, but my life is not.”
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant presided over the short straw-drawing ceremony.
Each candidate had received 4,589 votes in the legislative election for the House seat.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 24 states legally decide the outcome of tied legislative elections by drawing straws or flipping coins.
Similar cases have happened in New Mexico and Alaska, using a coin toss.
Connecticut decided in 2007 to eliminate chance games for breaking ties, a year after a coin toss determined a state house election.
The US has released former navy analyst Jonathan Pollard, who was jailed for life in 1987 for passing classified information to Israel.
Jonathan Pollard, 61, was freed from a feeral prison in North Carolina on November 20, ending one of the longest-running and most contentious issues between the US and Israel.
His parole conditions require him to remain in the US for five years.
Repeated Israeli appeals over the years for the US to show clemency towards Jonathan Pollard were rejected.
Jonathan Pollard traveled to a federal courthouse in New York on the day of release to challenge the conditions of his parole.
He must wear a GPS ankle bracelet and submit to inspections of his home and work. His legal team calls the terms “onerous and oppressive'”.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli people welcomed his release.
The prime minister’s spokesperson tweeted: “As someone who has raised Jonathan Pollard’s case for many years with US presidents, I have wished for this day.
“After 30 long and hard years, Jonathan Pollard is finally reuniting with his family.”
Jonathan Pollard passed secret information to Israel for a year in return for payments until his arrest in 1985. He said he had been frustrated by the US withholding key intelligence from its staunch ally.
After he was questioned by the FBI, Jonathan Pollard and his then-wife, Anne, sought asylum at the Israeli embassy in Washington but were turned away.
Israel initially denied Jonathan Pollard had spied for them, insisting he had worked with “rogue” officials.
In 1995, Israel granted Jonathan Pollard citizenship, and two years later, they admitted he was their agent.
Supporters of Jonathan Pollard in Israel and the US campaigned for his release, arguing that his sentence was unjust.
The US reportedly considered freeing Jonathan Pollard in 2014 in return for Israeli concessions to the Palestinians during faltering peace talks, before negotiations collapsed.
In an interview with the Associated Press in 1998, Jonathan Pollard said the price he had paid for spying had not been worth it.
“There is nothing good that came as a result of my actions,” he said.
“I tried to serve two countries at the same time. That does not work.”
President Barack Obama has admitted that he does not dye his hair, unlike other world leaders.
Barack Obama, 54, was responding to a Cambodian student who asked him for wise advice.
The president participated in a town hall meeting with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) attendees at Taylor’s University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia November 20, 2015, before attending the ASEAN summit meeting.
Barack Obama entered office in 2009 with dark black hair, however in recent years it has turned markedly more grey.
The color of a president’s hair has been controversial at times, with some leaders keeping secret the fact that they dyed their hair.
Barack Obama told the student: “The first thing I want from young people is to stop calling me old.
“I don’t dye my hair and a lot of world leaders do.
“I won’t say who. But their barbers know, their hairdressers.”
President Ronald Reagan never admitted to dying his jet-black hair, and his barber never spilled the beans, either.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder once sued a news agency for claiming that he hued his hair.
The Redemption Of The Devil, a documentary about American rock band Eagles of Death Metal has been pulled from the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.
The documentary follows band frontman Jesse Hughes in the build up to the release of their new album.
Gunmen killed 89 people at the band’s gig
Eagles of Death Metal were performing at the Bataclan concert hall where gunmen killed 89 people in last week’s Paris attacks.
The band escaped, but members of their crew and record company were killed.
The documentary, made by director Alex Hoffman, follows the band’s charismatic, hard-living frontman as he hits 40, becomes ordained as a Catholic minister and ponders a future in politics.
On November 19, Eagles of Death Metal issued their first statement about the attack and said they were “bonded in grief with the victims, the fans… and all those affected by terrorism”.
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They said they were “horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France” and all shows were on hold until further notice.
Meanwhile, new figures show ticket sales for concerts in Paris have fallen by around 80% since the series of attacks in the city.
Following the incident at the Bataclan, bands including U2 and Foo Fighters cancelled gigs.
A spokesman for Prodiss, the music industry producers group, said: “The attacks sent a shock wave that has hit our audiences hard.”
The group is carrying out a full audit to see how many concerts have been cancelled, but fear the cost of extra security measures might lead to more shows being pulled.
“Producers are extremely worried about the future. They work on quite a narrow margin,” the spokesman said, adding the Christmas period was crucial for the industry.
French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin has promised an emergency fund of 4 million euros to help get live entertainment up and running again and help with the cost of new security measures.
However, Prodniss said double that was needed.
“We have to rebuild the public’s confidence, make them feel happy and relaxed about going out to concerts again,” it said.
Celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred says she has been contacted by Charlie Sheen’s exes after the actor revealed he had HIV.
Charlie Sheen revealed on November 17 he was diagnosed four years ago.
Gloria Allred confirmed she had been “contacted by women with reference to Charlie Sheen and their rights. I have no comment on what will happen next”.
In the Today show interview, Charlie Sheen said it was “impossible” that he would have passed HIV on to anyone else.
Charlie Sheen, 50, said he hoped the interview would put a stop to an “onslaught, this barrage of attacks and of sub-truths of very harmful and mercurial stories about threatening the health of so many others, which couldn’t be further from the truth”.
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The actor said when he revealed his HIV status to friends “the truth became treason”, leading to “blackmail and extortion and a circle of deceit”.
Charlie Sheen said he had paid “enough to take it into the millions” to keep people from going public about his illness.
Since the interview a number of his exes have given TV interviews.
Gloria Allred is known for taking on high-profile cases connected to celebrities.
She is currently representing several women who claim they were either drugged or assaulted by the comedian Bill Cosby.
Gloria Allred was involved in cases against OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson.
People with HIV may be prosecuted for intentionally or recklessly infecting another person.
In the US, 67 laws explicitly focused on people living with HIV had been enacted in 33 states by 2011. They cover not disclosing the virus to partners – even if the transmission risk is minimal or nonexistent – donating HIV-infected organs and spitting HIV-infected bodily fluids.
French prosecutors have said that a third body has been recovered from the apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis raided by police after last week’s attacks.
They confirmed the body was that of Hasna Aitboulahcen, and was found overnight in a search of the flat following November 18 raid.
Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26, is widely reported to have been the cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and blew herself up.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of Paris attacks, was also killed in the raid.
The near-simultaneous attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen on bars and restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and Stade de France stadium on November 13 killed 129 people and left hundreds of people wounded.
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ISIS said it was behind the attacks.
Demonstrations have been banned under France’s state of emergency, but dozens of French artists and cultural figures have urged people to make a lot of “noise and light”, by turning on music and lights, at 21:20 local time on November 20 to mark the exact time a week ago that the attacks began.
Prosecutors have now confirmed the identities of two of the three suspects who died in the seven-hour-long raid in the Rue Cormillon apartment on November 18.
The prosecutor’s office said Hasna Aitboulahcen’s passport was found near her body.
News that Abdelhamid Abaaoud – a well-known face of ISIS and on international “most wanted” lists – and at least one of his accomplices may have travelled undetected from Syria before carrying out the attacks has raised fears about the security of the European Union’s borders.
EU interior ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss tougher measures, including tightening the external borders of the passport-free Schengen area.
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, on his way into the meeting, said the EU had “wasted too much time on a number of urgent issues” and hoped “today takes the decisions that we must take”.
A draft resolution for today’s EU meeting says ministers will agree to implement “necessary systematic and co-ordinated checks at external borders, including on individuals enjoying the right of free movement”.
This means EU citizens, along with non-EU citizens, will have their passports routinely checked against a database of known or suspected terrorists and those involved in organized crime.
Ministers will also consider cracking down on the movement of firearms within the EU, the collection of passenger data for those taking internal flights and also blocking funding for terrorists.
