World

A woman armed with a handgun opened fire today at the headquarters of YouTube, shooting three people. She was found dead after turning her gun on herself.

The shooting happened just before 1pm at the video-sharing giant's offices in San Bruno, California, the city's cops confirmed.

San Francisco General Hospital treated a 36-year-old man, who is in a critical condition, and two women, aged 32 and 27, who are in serious and fair conditions respectively. All three had been shot.

Another woman, understood to be the shooter, died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds near the YouTube campus. Identified locally as 38-year-old Nasim Aghdam, she was, according to her family, "angry" that YouTube had stopped paying her for her online videos and taken down her material.

"There is no equal growth opportunity on YouTube or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to,” Aghdam wrote on her website. “YouTube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views.”

Aghdam's family had reported her missing, after she disappeared for two days, and was found sleeping in her car. Her father, Ismail, said he warned police she had developed a hatred for YouTube and may target the organization.

A Pakistani news channel has hired the country's first transgender TV newsreader.

Marvia Malik, a journalism graduate who has also worked as a model, told the BBC she was moved to tears when she was offered the job.

She anchored her first show on private broadcaster Kohenoor on Friday, after three months of training.

Transgender people face discrimination in Pakistan and many struggle to find employment.

Some are forced into begging, dancing or prostitution to earn money.

Ms Malik told the BBC she had to stop herself from screaming with joy when she learned she had got the job.

"The dream that I saw for myself, I was able to climb on the first stair to achieving it," she said.

She said she hoped her work would help improve the lives of Pakistan's transgender community.

"Our community should be treated equally and there must not be any gender discrimination. We should be given equal rights and be considered ordinary citizens, instead of third-gender."

She added: "My family knows I have modelled and they know that I work as a newscaster. It's the age of social media and there's nothing that my family doesn't know. But they have still disowned me."

The owner of Kohenoor, Junaid Ansari, told VOA news that Ms Malik had been selected on merit, not on gender issues.

Earlier this month, Pakistan's Senate voted to support a bill protecting the rights of transgender people, and allowing them to determine their own gender identity.

In June 2016, a 23-year-old transgender activist died after delays in receiving medical treatment.

Alisha, who was shot eight times, was in critical condition when admitted to hospital but staff could not decide whether to put her in a male or female ward, according to her friends.

(BBC)

South African anti-apartheid campaigner and former first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died aged 81.

She and her former husband Nelson Mandela, who were both jailed, were a symbol of the country's anti-apartheid struggle for three decades.

However, in later years her reputation became tainted legally and politically.

Crowds of mourners and political figures flocked to her home in Soweto, in Johannesburg, after news of her death broke.

Family spokesman Victor Dlamini confirmed earlier on Monday that Mandela "succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones" following a long illness, which had seen her go in and out of hospital since the start of the year.

Madikizela-Mandela was born in 1936 in the Eastern Cape - then known as Transkei.
She was a trained social worker when she met her future husband in the 1950s. They went on to have two daughters together.

They were married for a total of 38 years, although for almost three decades of that time they were separated due to Nelson Mandela's long imprisonment.

As rescuers continue to search the burned-out shopping mall in the city of Kemerovo, many have been frantically trying to reach their relatives, including children who were in the mall’s cinema or play area when the fire started.

So far, 48 people have been officially confirmed as having lost their lives in the blaze, according to the Emergencies Ministry. Up to eleven children are reportedly among the victims.

In the meantime, an estimated 16 people are still missing, but the chances of discovering anybody alive amid the smoldering rubble are slim. Earlier, 64 people had been listed as missing, but authorities clarified that these included the victims whose bodies were already found but had not yet been identified.

At least 48 people were injured in the blaze, according to the emergency services, and 12 remain hospitalized.

Emergency services battle the flames Credit: Danil Aikin/Getty

 Amid conflicting reports, some have described the source of the fire as the children’s playground, suggesting that the trampoline there caught fire after a child allegedly misused a lighter. Another version suggests that electrical wiring at the playground had short-circuited.

Reports from witnesses have described panic as people realized there was a fire spreading, with many saying on social media that there were no fire alarms or loudspeaker warnings, and that people had to find their own way through the top floor of the mall, which was already filled with smoke. Several hundred people, including many children, were in the mall at the time.

Tragically, some reportedly had left their children unattended in one of the mall's cinema halls or at the playground.

The fire, which broke out on Sunday afternoon, was finally contained some 12 hours later, after engulfing some 1,600 square meters. The building sustained severe damage, its roof and floors partially collapsing.

Fears are growing that almost an entire class of primary school children may have perished in the blaze. Eight kids from a school outside Kemerovo were visiting the city on an excursion with a teacher, who led them to watch a cartoon show at the shopping mall. Russian media reports suggest that she chose to have a stroll through the mall and left the children at the cinema, from which they apparently couldn’t find their way out.

‘No fire alarms, no warning’

When the blaze erupted, witness Anna Zarechneva was at the mall with her husband and little son. Describing their ordeal in an Instagram post, she said there was no fire alarm, that lights were not switched back on in the cinema and that the movie even kept playing. The family was lucky to escape as other mall-goers notified them of the fire.

When Anna and her son were safe outside of the mall, her husband tried to get back in to retrieve the clothes they left behind. The man witnessed chaotic scenes on the third floor, with children still trapped in the cinema and their parents unable to reach them through thick, toxic smoke.

Other eyewitnesses have also reported that the fire alarm at the mall did not work. When the fire broke out, people panicked and ran towards the exits in a reportedly disorderly rush.

“We’ve decided to go and watch a cartoon in this mall for the first time. God ... Thank you for saving us,” a woman, identified only as Alexandra, says in the caption to the video. “I saw a woman running and screaming about the fire ... panic erupted, we were almost knocked down ... No there were no alarms!”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has returned to her home town in Pakistan for the first time since she was shot there by Taliban militants, security officials say.

Yousafzai, 20, was shot in the head by a gunman for campaigning for female education in 2012.

Her family's home region of Swat was once a militant stronghold, and she was attacked on a school bus there at 15.

It had been unclear if she would visit the area because of security concerns.

On Thursday, it was announced that Ms Yousafzai had returned from the UK to Pakistan for the first time since she was attacked.

Yousafzai delivered an emotional speech at the prime minister's office in Islamabad:

"Always it has been my dream that I should go to Pakistan and there, in peace and without any fear, I can move on streets, I can meet people, I can talk to people.

"And I think that it's my old home again... so it is actually happening, and I am grateful to all of you."

A helicopter carrying Yousafzai landed not far from her family home in Mingora on Saturday, amid a tight security operation.

Her trip to Pakistan is expected to last four days. Officials from her Malala Fund group are travelling with her, local media report.

Source : BBC

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his ratings in a slump amid a suspected cronyism scandal and cover-up, apologised again on Sunday for causing anxiety and loss of confidence in his government.

Protesters urged Abe to resign, as riot police kept tight security outside the venue of his ruling party's annual convention, at which the premier stressed his intention to revise Japan's pacifist post-war, U.S.-drafted constitution.

Abe faces his biggest political crisis since taking office in December 2012 as suspicions swirl about a sale of state-owned land at a huge discount to a nationalist school operator with ties to his wife.

"This problem has shaken the people's confidence in the administration," Abe told the convention. "As head of the government, I keenly feel my responsibility and would like to deeply apologise to the people."

He pledged a thorough clarification of the facts and the prevention of a recurrence by pulling the government together, but offered no sign of stepping down.

Abe has denied that he or his wife intervened in the sale or that he sought to alter documents related to the deal.

His close ally, Finance Minister Taro Aso, has also denied involvement in the alterations made by ministry officials.

Public opinion polls last weekend showed support for Abe's cabinet sinking as low as 31 percent, with majorities saying he bears some responsibility for the affair.

The sliding support rates could dash Abe's hopes of winning a third three-year term as ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader in a party vote in September, victory in which would set him on track to become Japan's longest ruling premier.

Also at the party convention, the LDP adopted a proposal to revise the pacifist constitution in line with a plan floated by Abe last year to explicitly refer to the Self-Defence Forces, as Japan's military is known.

"The time has finally come to tackle constitutional revision, which has been a task since the founding of the party," Abe said.

"Let's stipulate the Self-Defence Forces and put an end to a controversy about violation of the constitution."

Abe proposed last May that the first two clauses of Article 9, which renounces the right to wage war and bans maintenance of a standing military, be unchanged but that a reference to the SDF be added to clarify its ambiguous status.

Despite its literal ban on a standing army, successive governments have interpreted the charter to allow a military exclusively to defence.

Abe wants to make that stance clear in the constitution itself, but says the change will not alter Japan's security policies. Critics worry the revision would open the way to a bigger role for the military overseas.

Abe's weakened support and a wary junior coalition partner could make it hard for the LDP to push for the change, which would spark a divisive debate. Japan's constitution has never been amended and any changes require approval by two-thirds of each house of parliament and a majority in a public referendum.

Source : Channel News Asia

The Saudi-funded spread of Wahhabism began as a result of Western countries asking Riyadh to help counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the Washington Post.

Speaking to the paper, bin Salman said that Saudi Arabia's Western allies urged the country to invest in mosques and madrassas overseas during the Cold War, in an effort to prevent encroachment in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union

He added that successive Saudi governments had lost track of that effort, saying "we have to get it all back." Bin Salman also said that funding now comes mostly from Saudi-based "foundations," rather than from the government.

The crown prince’s 75-minute interview with the Washington Post took place on March 22, the final day of his US tour. Another topic of discussion included a previous claim by US media that bin Salman had said that he had White House senior adviser Jared Kushner "in his pocket."

Bin Salman denied reports that when he and Kushner – who is also Donald Trump's son-in-law – met in Riyadh in October, he had sought or received a greenlight from Kushner for the massive crackdown on alleged corruption which led to widespread arrests in the kingdom shortly afterwards. According to bin Salman, the arrests were a domestic issue and had been in the works for years.

He said it would be "really insane" for him to trade classified information with Kushner, or to try to use him to advance Saudi interests within the Trump administration. He stated that their relationship was within a normal governmental context, but did acknowledge that he and Kushner "work together as friends, more than partners." He stated that he also had good relationships with Vice President Mike Pence and others within the White House.

The crown prince also spoke about the war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition continues to launch a bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in an attempt to reinstate ousted Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi as president. The conflict has killed thousands, displaced many more, driven the country to the brink of famine, and led to a major cholera outbreak.

Although the coalition has been accused of a large number of civilian deaths and disregard for civilian lives - an accusation which Riyadh denies - the crown prince said his country has not passed up "any opportunity" to improve the humanitarian situation in the country. “There are not good options and bad options. The options are between bad and worse,” he said.

The interview with the crown prince was initially held off the record. However, the Saudi embassy later agreed to led the Washington Post publish specific portions of the meeting.

Zimbabwe has launched an investigation into the country's former first lady, Grace Mugabe, over her alleged involvement in an ivory smuggling ring.

The probe was opened after a three-month undercover mission by Australian wildlife photographer Adrian Steirn.

Speaking exclusively to Al Jazeera, Steirn said he uncovered the poaching and smuggling syndicate when he began looking into the illegal ivory trade in December.

"Ivory was being sourced either from the national park's vault, being thieved or pilfered, or from live elephants being killed by poaching syndicates. The syndicate would then sell to Grace Mugabe's clientele," he said.

"She would then be able to pack that and send it out through the airport. Anything through that airport, that was the property of the first lady, was not searched or scanned in any way."

Steirn has gathered documents, undercover videos and testimonies, which he showed to Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit. They expose the syndicate and the former first lady's involvement in ivory smuggling, he said.

Controlled ivory trade is allowed in Zimbabwe, but its export is not permitted.

In a written statement to Al Jazeera, Christopher Mutsvangwa, a special adviser to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said Zimbabwe's government "will seek answers from all parties including former First Lady Grace Mugabe … about their knowledge of the illegal export of prohibited items from our country."

Two alleged smugglers have been charged with possession of ivory.

Al Jazeera contacted Grace Mugabe's staff, lawyers and relatives for comment, but they did not respond.

During the presidency of her husband, Robert, she was a controversial figure, earning the nickname "Gucci Grace" for her extravagant shopping sprees.

Her hopes of succeeding him were dashed when the army forced Mugabe from power in November, and Mnangagwa took over.

That was when Steirn saw an opening to investigate, going undercover as an ivory buyer.

Three weeks later, in December, authorities in Zimbabwe seized an illegal shipment of 200 kilograms of ivory destined for Malaysia at Harare's Robert Mugabe International Airport.

Steirn said the evidence he gathered connects that shipment to Grace Mugabe and the smuggling syndicate.

Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb, reporting from Johannesburg, said Mnangagwa's government was eager "to clean up its international image after decades of Mugabe rule".

"The poaching and smuggling investigation is the first major challenge to the Mugabe family dynasty since the change of power," he said.

Source : Al Jazeera

In light of Facebook’s recent privacy woes, the company today pledged to take a meaningful step in righting past wrongs by shutting data brokers out of its multi-billion dollar ad platform.

Facebook’s product marketing director Graham Mudd had this to say:

"We want to let advertisers know that we will be shutting down Partner Categories. This product enables third party data providers to offer their targeting directly on Facebook. While this is common industry practice, we believe this step, winding down over the next six months, will help improve people’s privacy on Facebook."

The plan centers on third-party brokers like Acxiom Corp. and Epsilon Data Management LLC, both of which collect information to package and sell — sometimes to other brokers, other times to marketers who intend to use the insights on platforms like Facebook’s.

It’s a lucrative industry. Acxiom reported over $800 million in revenue last year alone.

Data brokers have been around a while, each collecting information that dates back before the internet was commonly used in most US households. Back then they collected information on your magazine and newspaper subscriptions, whether you owned a home, and how you were likely to vote. Today they know your sexual preferences, what you watch on TV, who your closest friends and family members are, and even whether you prefer a coupe or a sedan. It’s fair to say the internet has upped the ante.

Major players often purchased this bundled data, using that to help segment specific audiences to advertise to on social networks — in this case Facebook. Mudd is correct in saying that it’s common industry practice. Facebook though, provides targeting options that allow marketers to create laser-focused campaigns using the insights, a powerful combination that hadn’t existed just a decade prior — or, even on the same scale five years ago.

Today’s move to shut the door on these companies is a big one for Facebook, a company burdened by the weight of yet another privacy scandal. There’s still work to do, but even I — a self-professed Facebook cynic — commend the company for taking a proactive move rather than its typical reactionary backpedaling after major missteps.

European policymakers are suggesting a new tax on tech giants such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google in a measure that could raise $6.2 billion through what advocates say would be a fairer way of taxing how the companies make their money.

The proposal, unveiled Wednesday, would tap into digital titans' revenues in countries where they have the bulk of their users and customers, imposing a 3% tax on income from online advertising, the sale of user data and the connecting of users to one another.

The initiative, which would need several rounds of approvals, comes amid a rapidly heating trade conflict between Europe and the United States. Absent action by President Trump, new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are set to go into effect Friday, and EU leaders have threatened countermeasures to follow shortly after.

It also comes as Facebook's actions are under a microscope, following revelations that the Cambridge Analytica data firm misused the data of 50 million U.S. Facebook users to help Trump win the presidency and that Russians also targeted U.S. voters on the social network.

The action by the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union would seek to impose common tax rules across the EU's vast market of 500 million consumers.

But the measure is likely to run into skepticism from the countries that serve as the legal homes to the companies, as well as small tech-savvy nations such as Estonia, where the technology behind Skype was born. Any EU-wide tax measure would require unanimity.

The goal, advocates say, is fairness. In Europe, companies with digital business models pay an effective tax rate of 9.5%, compared with 23.2% for companies with traditional business models, the European Commission said.

"The digital revolution has overturned economies, and it has profoundly affected the way businesses create value today," said Pierre Moscovici, the top EU economy and tax official, as he announced the proposal in Brussels.

"Your click triggers a whole chain of commercial transactions and therefore generates substantial profits" that are not taxed by most countries, he said. "This legal loophole is no longer acceptable."

European leaders also are concerned that the U.S. tax overhaul passed in December will divert tax revenue away from Europe and toward the United States. The tax law slashed corporate rates to 21% and offered incentives for companies such as Apple Inc., which had accumulated billions of dollars in its European subsidiary in Ireland, to bring home their profits. Moscovici has said that the European measures are not connected to actions by any other government, but French leaders advocated similar national plans in reaction to the U.S. policy changes.

The proposed EU tax would only hit businesses with annual worldwide turnover above $923 billion that also make more than $62 billion of their revenue inside the European Union. That would give small tech start-ups room to grow, European policymakers said. At least 120 global firms fit the criteria, Moscovici said.

Trump administration officials have raised sharp objections to the tax plan, which Moscovici outlined in a preliminary form Tuesday at a meeting of finance ministers of the Group of 20 major world economies in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"The U.S. firmly opposes proposals by any country to single out digital companies," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement last week that did not specifically mention the EU tax plans. "Some of these companies are among the greatest contributors to U.S. job creation and economic growth."

Advocates of the measure said they are not targeting U.S. companies. But the U.S.-centered reality of the modern technology industry puts many U.S. companies in the crosshairs, and the tax could hit Amazon.com Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. and others. (The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.)

The EU plan is intended as a temporary measure until a permanent plan is devised that would overhaul the taxation of the profits of digital companies. But because of the difficulty of reaching tax compromises, temporary measures have sometimes remained in place for decades.

After days of speculation, it has been confirmed that North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has visited China.

The visit, confirmed by China and North Korea, was Mr Kim's first known foreign trip since taking office in 2011.

Kim held "successful talks" with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

China is North Korea's main economic ally and it was thought highly likely it would consult Beijing before planned summits with South Korea and the US.

Kim is due to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April, and US President Donald Trump in May.

The Beijing visit is considered a significant step in North Korea's preparation for the proposed talks.

During the visit, Kim assured his Chinese counterpart he was committed to giving up his nuclear weapons, China's Xinhua news agency reported, but with conditions.

Source : BBC

Chinese President Xi Jinping has told the National People's Congress (NPC) that China must not become complacent about its development.

Speaking at the closing session of the annual parliament, Xi said China was at a critical stage in its history and only socialism could save it.

He also warned against Taiwanese separatism or attempts to split China. Xi is now set up to be China's president for life, after the NPC removed a two-term limit.

The motion was overwhelmingly approved by the roughly 3,000 delegates at the start of the session. The parliamentary session meets once a year. It essentially rubber stamps changes already decided by the leadership.

In his speech in the Great Hall of the People, Xi laid out his grand vision for China, re confirming his ambition to "rejuvenate" the country and continue China's "great contributions to civilisation".

"History has already proven and will continue to prove that only socialism can save China," he said.

He said he saw the people as "the real heroes" of China and that he and all fellow politicians "must work hard for the people's interests".

The president also highlighted major achievements of Chinese history from the invention of paper and gunpowder to building the Great Wall or the writings of Confucius.

Pointing at China's global ambitions, Xi said his country would be strong but not aggressive and would not develop itself at the expense of the rest of the world.

President Xi also said China had to be united to prosper and, in a reference to Taiwan, said Beijing would thwart any separatist attempts.

"The Chinese people share a common belief that it is never allowed and it is absolutely impossible to separate any inch of our great country's territory from China."

Self-ruling Taiwan is considered by Beijing to be a separatist province which will one day be reunited with the mainland. It remains a major potential flashpoint in the region.

Xi is now considered the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, and the NPC saw his position further strengthened. It confirmed Xi Jinping's second term as president and ratified the inclusion of his political philosophy - "Xi Jinping Thought" - in to the constitution.

Lawmakers also appointed key positions including the central bank head and chief economic advisor and ratified a law to set up a new powerful anti-corruption agency.

The continued push against corruption, a key campaign of Xi Jinping's, is seen by some observers as potentially a tool to sideline his political rivals. The decision to lift the term limitations has, however, been criticised both abroad and within China.

Source : BBC