U.S. stocks slumped Friday afternoon after opening higher in the last trading session of a turbulent week in which the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index plunged into correction territory for the first time in two years.

The Dow, the more broad-based S&P 500 and the technology-laden NASDAQ composite were all about one percent lower in afternoon trading.

Earlier Friday, global stock indexes closed out the week in negative territory, deepening the weeklong sell-off. France’s CAC 40 Index fell 1.2 percent, Britain’s FTSE 100 Index lost seven-tenths of one percent and Germany’s DAX finished 1.2 percent lower.

Asian benchmarks fell more sharply. China’s Shanghai Composite Index plummeted 4 percent, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 retreated 2.3 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost just over 3 percent.

The U.S. sell-off began a week ago after the U.S. Labor Department reported wages grew rapidly in January, sparking concern of higher inflation and lower corporate profits.

European markets were rattled by a signal from the Bank of England that it may boost interest rates in response to a strong global economy.

Despite this week’s heavy losses, U.S. benchmarks are still posting strong gains over the past year. As of Friday morning, the Dow was 19 percent higher, the S&P was up 12.5 percent and the NASDAQ was ahead by more than 19 percent.

Many Wall Street observers had been expecting a correction — a drop in stock values of 10 percent or more over the most recent record high — because the market is currently in the middle of its second-longest bull run, or market that is expected to rise, of all time. Until now, the booming market had not seen a correction in two years, an unusually long time.
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From: MeNeedIt

The 2018 Winter Olympic Games have officially begun in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with a spectacular light show and the traditional parade of athletes entering the Olympic stadium.

This year, Nigeria has its first team in the Winter Games — a women’s bobsled team. They’ll be hurtling down the ice at speeds of 150 kilometers an hour.

Other athletes originally from Africa will be making history at the games.

Akwasi Frimpong will represent Ghana on the skeleton, a small sled that rockets down the icy course. Simidele Adeagbo will be Nigeria’s first female skeleton competitor. Eritrea has its first competitor, skier Shannon Ogbani Abeda, who was born in Canada to Eritrean immigrants.

And Maame Biney, who was born in Ghana, has become a darling of the U.S. speed skating team.

The Winter Games run through February 25.
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From: MeNeedIt

Kenya’s cut-flower industry has blossomed since the 1980s, and now holds the biggest market share for exports to Europe. Kenya’s flower producers are hoping direct flights set to open between Nairobi and New York City could help them put down roots in a new market — the United States.

On the cutting floor of a factory in Naivasha, about a hundred workers dressed in red smocks stand at sorting tables, some with blades at the ready. The remnants of their work lay scattered about on the gray cement floor. 

Naivasha is Kenya’s floriculture heartland and workers at Van den Berg Kenya are trimming, packing and refrigerating bundles of roses. 

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this is the busiest time of year for flower growers in Kenya — the world’s fourth-largest exporter of cut flowers, with most of the exports going to Europe, Australia and Japan.  

“We saw good growth of up to about 10 percent up to the year 2008,” said Jane Ngige, the outgoing CEO of Kenya Flower Council, which represents 115 of about 150 registered growers. “And, since then, it’s stabilizing at about 2 percent.”

Kenya’s cut-flower industry may be set to grow once again with direct flights opening in October to the United States. 

Kenya’s flower growers have been anticipating the direct flights for a few years now, according to Ngige. 

“And what we’re looking at is an opportunity to diversify our markets to the American market. And, we’re also looking — not to compete with the South Americans, who are the main producers or the main suppliers of flowers for North America — but look at complimenting the product. Because, our products are very different,” Ngige said.

Kenyan roses have a smaller head-size than the Columbian flowers that dominate the U.S. market, say growers in Naivasha, but Kenya’s varietals and low production costs could give it an edge. 

While a small fraction of Kenya’s flowers currently end up in the U.S., the air freight stopover in Europe is a costly barrier to greater market access. 

The managing director of Flamingo Horticulture Kenya, Jonathan Ralling, agrees that direct flights are a good opportunity — if there is enough cargo space. 

“I think it will depend on how much freight is available, in terms of what can leave the country, and also of course how competitive Kenya can be against the South American exporters, which are very, very strong in terms of the U.S.,” Ralling said.

There are 100,000 workers directly employed in Kenya’s flower industry, but Kenya Flower Council says indirect services and products account for another 400,000 jobs, providing livelihoods for around two million people. 

The hope is that, with better access to the U.S. consumer market, Kenya’s flower industry — and the number of people it supports — can only grow. 
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From: MeNeedIt

Politicians, public figures and criminals suspected of buying property with corrupt money will be forced to explain their wealth or see their assets seized under new legislation that has come into force in Britain this month.

The so-called Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) have been welcomed by campaigners, who say the British capital is at the center of a global web of embezzled money.

The anti-corruption organization Transparency International has identified five properties they say British authorities could immediately begin investigating using Unexplained Wealth Orders.

WATCH: Britain Targets Global Corruption With Law to Seize Unexplained Wealth

Among them are two apartments overlooking the River Thames that are worth about $15 million. The Russian anti-corruption campaigner and opposition politician Alexey Navalny alleges the apartments are owned by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Igor Shuvalov, whose self-declared annual salary is $157,000.

Unexplained wealth

So how exactly is Shuvalov able to afford the property? The new legislation should be used to investigate, said Rachel Davies Teka, head of advocacy at Transparency International.

“An Unexplained Wealth Order could be served by the National Crime Agency or the Serious Fraud Office here in the UK. And that would say to that person, ‘OK, there’s a huge gap here, maybe that’s legitimate income, that’s fine, you just explain that to us, you show us the proof of this income and we’ll leave you alone.’ If that person is unable to do so, then law enforcement can then move to recover that asset,” she said.

Britain’s National Crime Agency says that in excess of $100 billion of corrupt money flows through London each year, much of it public money stolen from government budgets.

“Before UWOs came into force, it was very easy for corrupt politicians from overseas to take their wealth and actually bury it in the UK in sectors such as property,” Davies Teka said.

Tony London neighborhoods

Campaigners cite the case of an $18 million house in London’s Mayfair district, which until last year was owned by Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Investigators believe he embezzled more than $300 million of state funds. He sold the house before it could be seized by authorities and claims his wealth comes from rich Arab backers.

Those looking to hide their wealth often use a complex network of offshore holding companies to conceal their identity.

“We still don’t have a register of the true owners of overseas companies that own UK property. And that’s a bit of a problem in actually identifying these massive gaps between income and asset in the first place,” Davies Teka said.

Two kilometers away in London’s Belgravia district lies another property at the center of corruption allegations. The so-called “Paradise Papers” leak showed that the $20 million house is owned by Toyin Saraki, the wife of the president of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki. He says his assets are legitimately owned, but Transparency International says this house also should be investigated.

Speaking to VOA in October, Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed said his government is cracking down on corruption. 

“But we also need the cooperation of many foreign countries, because sometimes we are hampered by the foreign jurisdictions,” he said.

Campaigners warn that the Unexplained Wealth Orders will prove effective only if the British government is willing to use them and show it is serious about ending London’s central role in global corruption.
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From: MeNeedIt

World champion and Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles has 19 medals to her name, but there’s one accolade that’s been out of her reach. Until now. VOA’s Tina Trinh met with the all-star gymnast to discuss her next big goal.
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From: MeNeedIt

How safe is it to eat snow? A Romanian university study says it depends upon how fresh it is.

A 2017 experiment showed it was safe to eat snow that was a half-day old, and safer to eat it in the colder months. But by two days old, the snow is not safe to eat, Istvan Mathe, a professor at the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, told The Associated Press.

Scientists collected snow from a park and from a roundabout in Miercurea Ciuc, central Romania, in January and February and placed it in hermetically sealed sterile containers. They then tried to grow bacteria and mold in them.

The study took place in temperatures ranging from minus 1.1 degrees Celsius to minus 17.4 C (30 degrees to 0.7 degree Fahrenheit) in the city, one of the coldest in Romania.

After one day, there were five bacteria per millimeter in January, while in February that number quadrupled.

“Very fresh snow has very little bacteria,” Mathe said Thursday. “After two days, however, there are dozens of bacteria.”

He said the microorganisms increase because of impurities in the air.

Mathe got the idea for the study when he saw his children eating snow.

“I am not recommending anyone eats snow. Just saying you won’t get ill if you eat a bit,” he said.
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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. stocks tumbled again Thursday as investors continued to fret about the possibility of rising inflation and higher interest rates. 

For the second time in four days, the Dow Jones industrial average sank more than 1,000 points, or 4.2 percent, to end Thursday day at 23,860.

The Standard and Poor’s Index, the benchmark for many index funds, also shed 100.66 points, or 3.8 percent, to close at 2,581. It last hit that low in mid-November.

The two indexes have dropped 10 percent from their all-time highs, set on January 26. That means they are in what is known on Wall Street as a “correction,” fueled by fears that a long stretch of low interest rates and tame inflation, which helped driven up stock prices, might be coming to an end.

As the day wore on, it became evident major U.S. stock indexes were headed toward their fifth loss in the last six days, erasing big gains in the first weeks of the new year.

Stocks began to tumble last Friday after the U.S. Labor Department reported wages grew rapidly in January, sparking concern of higher inflation and lower corporate profits.

Earlier in Europe, stock prices declined and bond yields increased after the Bank of England said it may boost interest rates in response to a strong global economy. Britain’s FTSE-100 Index fell 1.5 percent and Germany’s DAX plunged 2.6 percent.

The picture was brighter in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index climbed just over 1 percent, South Korea’s Kospi Index rose five-tenths of one percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained four-tenths of one percent. 
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From: MeNeedIt

South Sudan has officially declared an end to the country’s cholera epidemic, which erupted more than 18 months ago, infecting more than 20,000 people and killing 436.

World Health Organization and health ministry officials announced the end of the outbreak at a news conference Wednesday in Juba.

The outbreak, the largest in the country’s history, began in mid-2016, just as a fresh wave of fighting ramped up in Juba.

South Sudan Health Minister Riek Gai Kok says the first case was reported in Al Sabah Children’s Hospital on June 18, 2016, “and it spread to over 26 counties across the country and it continued for a complete year.”

Not one cholera case has been reported in South Sudan for the past seven weeks, Kok said, but that does not mean people should become complacent.

“Instead, we should draw some lessons that might have been the root causes of the previous outbreaks,” Kok said.

International response

The minister said the outbreak ended thanks to an effective response by the WHO, UNICEF, the United States Agency for International Development, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and other agencies who worked together to prevent further spread of the disease.

Evans Majani Liyosi, the WHO’s country representative in South Sudan, said the outbreak dragged on for 18 months because health workers were unprepared.

“Fighting was going on and everybody was hiding, this was in July 2016. It was very difficult for the patients to go to health facilities and for the health workers to be in the health facility. People were moving in any direction and those who were infected continued to move with this disease,” Liyosi said.

Many health workers working with non-governmental organizations were evacuated from conflict areas in 2016, exacerbating the cholera outbreak.

Prevention lessons

Liyosi said the WHO is working with the ministry of health to enact measures in order to prevent future outbreaks of cholera.

“Cholera is a disease that comes as a result of drinking contaminated water and poor sanitation, and these are issues that we have to put down. We are going to work with other partners and ensure that we are able to overcome,” Liyosi said.

WHO and health ministry officials are advising the public to drink only clean water, use boiled water or water treated with chlorine for other household uses, and to always wash both hands with soap after using the latrine or before handling food.  

The public is also strongly advised not to defecate near any source of water.

Despite announcing the end to South Sudan’s outbreak, Health Minister Kok is still advising citizens to report all suspected cases of cholera to the national outbreak hotline, 1144.
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From: MeNeedIt

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced $17.5 million in emergency funding to fight the spread of the spotted lanternfly in Pennsylvania.

The invasive species was first spotted in District Township in 2014. It has since spread to 12 counties and threatens the state’s $18 billion grape, orchard and logging industries.

In an announcement Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says “decisive action” was needed to stop the insect from spreading to neighboring states.

The USDA says $8.7 million will be spent on a survey and control program for the infested area, $7.5 million will go toward insecticides and herbicides and the rest will fund public education efforts.

Perdue says the effort will begin before the insect starts to re-emerge in the spring.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Two scientists in spacesuits, stark white against the auburn terrain of desolate plains and dunes, test a geo-radar built to map Mars by dragging the flat box across the rocky sand.

When the geo-radar stops working, the two walk back to their all-terrain vehicles and radio colleagues at their nearby base camp for guidance. They can’t turn to their mission command, far off in the Alps, because communications from there are delayed 10 minutes.

But this isn’t the Red Planet — it’s the Arabian Peninsula.

The desolate desert in southern Oman, near the borders of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, resembles Mars so much that more than 200 scientists from 25 nations chose it as their location for the next four weeks, to field-test technology for a manned mission to Mars.

Public and private ventures are racing toward Mars — both former President Barack Obama and SpaceX founder Elon Musk declared humans would walk on the Red Planet in a few decades.

New challengers like China are joining the United States and Russia in space with an ambitious, if vague, Mars program. Aerospace corporations like BlueOrigin have published schematics of future bases, ships and suits.

The successful launch of SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket this week “puts us in a completely different realm of what we can put into deep space, what we can send to Mars,” said analog astronaut Kartik Kumar.

The next step to Mars, he says, is to tackle non-engineering problems like medical emergency responses and isolation.

“These are things I think can’t be underestimated.” Kumar said.

While cosmonauts and astronauts are learning valuable spacefaring skills on the International Space Station — and the U.S. is using virtual reality to train scientists — the majority of work to prepare for interplanetary expeditions is being done on Earth.

And where best to field-test equipment and people for the journey to Mars but on some of the planet’s most forbidding spots?

Seen from space, the Dhofar Desert is a flat, brown expanse. Few animals or plants survive in the desert expanses of the Arabian Peninsula, where temperatures can top 125 degrees Fahrenheit, or 51 degrees Celsius.

On the eastern edge of a seemingly endless dune is the Oman Mars Base: a giant 2.4-ton inflated habitat surrounded by shipping containers turned into labs and crew quarters.

There are no airlocks.

The desert’s surface resembles Mars so much, it’s hard to tell the difference, Kumar said, his spacesuit caked in dust. “But it goes deeper than that: the types of geomorphology, all the structures, the salt domes, the riverbeds, the wadis, it parallels a lot of what we see on Mars.”

The Omani government offered to host the Austrian Space Forum’s next Mars simulation during a meeting of the United Nation’s Committee On the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Gernot Groemer, commander of the Oman Mars simulation and a veteran of 11 science missions on Earth, said the forum quickly accepted.

Scientists from across the world sent ideas for experiments and the mission, named AMADEE-18, quickly grew to 16 scientific experiments, such as testing a “tumbleweed” whip-fast robot rover and a new space suit called Aouda.

The cutting-edge spacesuit, weighing about 50 kilograms, is called a “personal spaceship” because one can breathe, eat and do hard science inside it. The suit’s visor displays maps, communications and sensor data. A blue piece of foam in front of the chin can be used to wipe your nose and mouth.

“No matter who is going to this grandest voyage of our society yet to come, I think a few things we learn here will be actually implemented in those missions,” Groemer said.

The Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik ignited a space race between Moscow and Washington to land a crew on the Moon.

But before the U.S. got there first, astronauts like Neil Armstrong trained suspended on pulleys to simulate one-sixth of Earth’s gravity.

Hostile environments from Arizona to Siberia were used to fine-tune capsules, landers, rovers and suits — simulating otherworldly dangers to be found beyond Earth. Space agencies call them “analogues” because they resemble extraterrestrial extremes of cold and remoteness.

“You can test systems on those locations and see where the breaking points are, and you can see where things start to fail and which design option you need to take in order to assure that it does not fail on Mars,” said Joao Lousada, one of the Oman simulation’s deputy field commanders who is a flight controller for the International Space Station.

Faux space stations have been built underwater off the coast of Florida, on frigid dark deserts of Antarctica, and in volcanic craters in Hawaii, according to “Packing For Mars,” a favorite book among many Mars scientists, written by Mary Roach.

“Terrestrial analogs are a tool in the toolkit of space exploration, but they are not a panacea,” said Scott Hubbard, known as “Mars Czar” back when he lead the U.S. space agency’s Mars program. Some simulations have helped developed cameras, rovers, suits and closed-loop life-support systems, he said.

NASA used the Mojave Desert to test rovers destined for the Red Planet but they also discovered much about how humans can adapt.

“Human’s adaptability in an unstructured environment is still far, far better than any robot we can send to space,” Hubbard said, adding that people, not just robots, are the key to exploring Mars.

The European Space Agency’s list of “planetary analogues” includes projects in Chile, Peru, South Africa, Namibia, Morocco, Italy, Spain, Canada, Antarctica, Russia, China, Australia, India, Germany, Norway, Iceland, and nine U.S. states. Next Thursday, Israeli scientists are to run a shorter simulation in a nature preserve called D Mars.

However, there remain so many unknowns that simulations “are not in any way a replacement for being there,” Hubbard said.

The Oman team’s optimism is unflinching.

“The first person to walk on Mars has in fact already been born, and might be going to elementary school now in Oman, or back in Europe, in the U.S. or China,” Lousada said.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Dutch lender Rabobank’s California unit agreed Wednesday to pay $369 million to settle allegations that it lied to regulators investigating allegations of laundering money from Mexican drug sales and organized crime through branches in small towns on the Mexico border.

The subsidiary, Rabobank National Association, said it doesn’t dispute that it accepted at least $369 million in illegal proceeds from drug trafficking and other activity from 2009 to 2012. It pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States for participating in a cover-up when regulators began asking questions in 2013.

The penalty is one of the largest U.S. settlements involving the laundering of Mexican drug money, though it’s still only a fraction of the $1.9 billion that Britain’s HSBC agreed to pay in 2012. It surpasses the $160 million that Wachovia Bank agreed to pay in 2010.

Three execs behind cover-up

Under the agreement, the company will cooperate with investigators. The federal government agreed not to seek additional criminal charges against the company or recommend special oversight.

The settlement describes how three unnamed executives ignored a whistleblower’s warnings and orchestrated the cover-up. Two of the executives were fired in 2015 and one retired that year.

“Settling these matters is important for the bank’s mission here in California,” said Mark Borrecco, the subsidiary’s chief executive.

In 2010, Mexico proposed new limits on cash deposits at the country’s banks, resulting in more tainted deposits at Rabobank branches in Calexico and Tecate, according to the plea agreement. Accounts in the two border towns soared more than 20 percent after Mexico’s crackdown, and bank officials knew the money was likely tied to drug trafficking and organized crime.

Risky customers escaped scrutiny, including one in Calexico who funneled more than $100 million in suspicious transactions. Customers in Tecate withdrew more than $1 million in cash a year from 2009 to 2012, often in amounts just under federal reporting requirements.

“The cartels probably thought these were sleepy towns, no one’s going to notice,” said Dave Shaw, head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego. “When you bring in $400 million, someone is going to notice. The bank should have known and they just chose not to report any suspicious activity.”

Punishment for cover-up, not crime

Heather Lowe, legal counsel and government affairs director at research and advocacy group Global Financial Integrity, said the illegal activity bore similarities to what happened with HSBC and Wachovia.

But those banks were charged with laundering Mexican drug proceeds, while Rabobank only acknowledged covering it up.

“It seems in this case we have the bank taking the hit for lying but not for the violations themselves,” said Lowe, who expects the three unnamed executives will be prosecuted.

A whistleblower alerted two of the three executives to suspicious activity in 2012 and shared her concerns with the bank’s “executive management group,” according to the plea agreement. She also spoke with regulators amid concerns in the company that the government scrutiny could endanger a pending merger. She was fired in July 2013.

The government has a cooperating witness in former compliance officer George M. Martin, who agreed in December to cooperate with authorities in a deal that delayed prosecution for two years.

Martin, a vice president and anti-money laundering investigations manager, acknowledged he oversaw policies and practices that blocked or stymied probes into suspicious transactions and said he acted at the direction of supervisors, or at least with their knowledge.

Martin told investigators that he and others allowed millions of dollars to pass through the bank.

Rabobank, based in Utrecht, Netherlands, said last month that it set aside about 310 million euros ($384 million) to settled allegations against its subsidiary. Sentencing is scheduled May 18.
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From: MeNeedIt

Since 1931, the Gerber baby food baby has been one of the world’s most familiar and ubiquitous trademarks.

This year’s Gerber spokesbaby is extra-special, he is 18-month-old Lucas Warren from Dalton, Georgia, and he has Down syndrome.

Lucas was chosen from 140,000 entries from across the country, all happy and beautiful and deserving, Gerber said.

But Gerber CEO Bill Partyka said Lucas’ “winning smile and joyful expression won our hearts this year.”

Along with a $50,000 prize, Lucas will appear on Gerber social media channels throughout 2018 and, as his mother Courtney says, “spread joy, not only to those he interacts with, but to people all over the country … individuals with special needs have the potential to change the world, just like our Lucas.”

The original Gerber baby, whose sketch has appeared on jars and boxes since 1931, is Ann Turner Cook, who recently turned 91.
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From: MeNeedIt