Italian earthquake,escuers continue efforts to find survivors

The death toll in the Italian earthquake has risen to at least 247 as thousands of rescuers continue efforts to find survivors.

Dozens are believed trapped in ruined Amatrice, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto, in mountainous central Italy.
The search went on through the night, and there was a strong aftershock which rocked already damaged buildings.
More than 4,300 rescuers are using heavy lifting equipment and their bare hands.
Many of the victims were children, the health minister said, and there were warnings the toll could rise further.

Soma Zaidi

Thursday, August 25, 2016 No Comments

PRESIDENT MAGUFULI

PRESIDENT Magufuli's government has launched a major tax crackdown, faces some intriguing questions ahead of the unveiling of the much-anticipated 2016/17 fiscal year budget, how do you encourage investment through tax incentives and collect revenues needed to build flagship infrastructure projects?
The issue of tax exemptions has come under sharp focus following revelations that former president Jakaya Kikwete's administration waived taxes worth close to 8 trillion/- in just the past five years alone
But top government officials in the Magufuli administration yesterday defended the use of tax exemptions as a tool to court both foreign and domestic investment companies, saying it was a necessary evil.
According to the government's investment chiefs, tax waivers are used by different nation's around the world to woo foreign direct investments (FDIs) and boost local manufacturing industries.
Like other African countries, Tanzania is competing for scarce FDI inflows, hence has to offer some tangible incentives to investor companies, they said.
“This is a global tradition that we, as a country, cannot shy away from ... but there is a lot of misinformation out there among members of the public concerning tax exemptions,” Tanzania Investment Centre's (TIC) acting executive director, Clifford Tandari, told The Guardian.
According to Tandari, even some developed nations such as Ireland and Turkey have also been using tax incentives as a magnet to lure investors and have successfully benefited from the practice.
Likewise, the director general of the state-run Economic Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), Col.(rtd) Joseph Simbakalia, defended tax incentives, saying the government does not waive taxes without conducting thorough research on the beneficiaries and the expected benefits to the national economy at large.
He said government tax is exempted only after a well thought out cost-benefit analysis is done.
Simbakalia explained that most investors who are given tax exemptions have something substantive to offer the country, such as job creation.
“We do not forfeit government taxes just like that ... we have done our research and we have concrete numbers on everything that we carry out," he insisted.
"Look at this on both sides of the coin then you will come to notice the reason why we grant such incentives.”
His sentiments were echoed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investments, Dr Adelhelm Meru, who also threw his weight behind tax exemptions, saying there was a misconception on the matter.
According to Meru, there was no nation in the world that does not give some sort of tax incentives to investors.
The PS, himself a former director general of the EPZA, said tax exemptions were not only offered to investment companies, but also to various other sectors.
“We are in a very competitive world where every country is striving to attract more investors, therefore if we frustrate them, they will definitely not come to our country and we will lose out,” Meru said.
He noted that some countries have even changed the name of tax exemptions to "subsidies" to highlight their importance to the economy.
The recent trend of tax exemptions shows that Tanzania has consistently failed to cap tax waivers to 1 per cent or below of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Latest data from the Ministry of Finance and Planning seen by The Guardian indicate that tax waivers have amounted to 7.78 trillion/- since 2010.
The recent report by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) slammed government tax exemption as "over-generous", saying they only benefited a few individuals, companies and groups at the expense of the country’s economy.
The tax waivers have even forced the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to consistently miss its revenue collection targets and in turn compelled the government to borrow heavily to fill yawning fiscal gaps.
It remains to be seen how the Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Philip Mpango, will tackle tax exemptions in his maiden budget speech on June 9.
Magufuli's government is expected to unveil an infrastructure-heavy budget, with massive public investments in a new standard gauge railway, flyovers, ports, roads and power plants.
A new government initiative to wean itself off donor dependency means that the funding of development projects would have to increasingly rely on domestic financial resources, which are under threat from tax incentives.

Soma Zaidi

Wednesday, May 4, 2016 No Comments

Brazil's embattled President Dilma Rousseff says she is 'innocent victim' in impeachment fight, vows to 'keep fighting' - BBC

Brazil's beleaguered President Dilma Rousseff has told the BBC she is an "innocent victim" and she will fight on as possible impeachment looms.
She vowed to "keep fighting... to come back to government if the impeachment request is accepted".
Ms Rousseff is accused of manipulating government accounts, which she denies.
The Senate will decide whether to start an impeachment trial next week. If that happens she will be suspended from office for 180 days.
Recent polls conducted by Brazil's major newspapers suggest that a majority of the 81 senators will vote in favour of the trial.
In the wide-ranging interview with the BBC's Wyre Davies, President Rousseff also said:
torture in prison under the military government in the 1970s was common practice, reliving her three years of incarceration
"not enough efforts" had been made to tackle corruption in Brazil, but "the degree of effectiveness" increased during her administration
receiving the Olympic torch for the Rio 2016 Games was a "bittersweet moment", as there was no certainty that she would attend the summer event as president
'Resist, resist, resist'
"Yes, I believe, indeed, that I am a victim. And, of course, yes I am innocent. And at the same time, I am an innocent victim," Ms Rousseff said.
"What we in the government believe and what my supporters believe is that the ongoing impeachment process is illegitimate and illegal.
"Because it is ultimately based on a lie, i.e. an indirect election under the guise of an impeachment process."
And the president stressed: "What we will do is to resist, to resist, and to resist. And further fight to ensure that we will come out victorious on a merit basis and resume office."
Ms Rousseff is accused of manipulating budget figures in 2014 to make her government's economic performance appear better than it was - ahead of her re-election.
The president has defended her government's fiscal measures as common practice in Brazil.

visit http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36209789 to get more informations.

Soma Zaidi

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study this::"Breast cancer: Scientists hail 'very significant' genetic find"

Scientists say they now have a near-perfect picture of the genetic events that cause breast cancer.

The study, published in Nature, has been described as a hugely significant moment that could help unlock new ways of treating and preventing the disease.

The largest study of its kind unpicked practically all the errors that cause healthy breast tissue to go rogue.

Cancer Research UK said the findings were an important stepping-stone to new drugs.

To understand the causes of cancer, scientists have to understand what goes wrong in our DNA that makes healthy tissue turn cancerous.

The international team looked at all 3 billion letters of people's genetic code - their entire blueprint of life - in 560 breast cancers.

They uncovered 93 sets of instructions, or genes, that if mutated, can cause tumours. Some have been discovered before, but scientists expect this to be the definitive list, barring a few rare mutations.

'Mutational signatures'

Prof Sir Mike Stratton, the director of the Sanger Institute in Cambridge which led the study, told the BBC News website: "In the latter part of the last century we were able to identify the first individual genes that became mutated.

"Now with our ability to sequence the whole genome of very large numbers of cancers we're moving to essentially a, more-or-less, comprehensive or complete list of those mutated cancer genes so it is a very significant moment for cancer research."

And crucially, each of those mutations is also a potential weakness that can be used to develop drugs.

"This is no longer speculation or hand-waving," said Prof Stratton. Targeted drugs such as Herceptin are already being used by patients with specific mutations.

Prof Stratton expects new drugs will still take decades to reach patients and warns: "Cancers are devious beasts and they work out ways of developing resistance to new therapeutics so overall I'm optimistic, but it's a tempered optimism."

There is also bad news in the data - 60% of the mutations driving cancer are found in just 10 genes.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are mutations so rare they are in just a tiny fraction of cancers meaning it is unlikely there will be any financial incentive to develop therapies.

But why do those genes mutate in the first place?

Mutations leave unique scars - known as mutational signatures - on our DNA and that allowed the team to identify 12 types of damage that cause mutations in the breast.

Some are related to family risk, but most are still unexplained.

One class of mutation seems to stem from the body attacking viruses by mutating their genetic code, but also suffering collateral damage in the process.

Whether any of these processes can be altered is still unknown in this nascent field, but researchers hope the findings could eventually lead to ways of reducing the risk of cancers.

Dr Serena Nik-Zainal, another researcher at the Sanger Institute, added: "In the future, we'd like to be able to profile individual cancer genomes so that we can identify the treatment most likely to be successful for a woman or man diagnosed with breast cancer.

"It is a step closer to personalised health care for cancer."

Dr Emma Smith, from Cancer Research UK, said: "This study brings us closer to getting a complete picture of the genetic changes at the heart of breast cancer and throws up intriguing clues about the key biological processes that go wrong in cells and drive the disease.

"Understanding these underlying processes has already led to more effective treatments for patients, so genetic studies on this scale could be an important stepping stone towards developing new drugs and boosting the number of people who survive cancer."

FRM BBC

for more knowledge Follow James on Twitter.

Soma Zaidi

Monday, May 2, 2016 No Comments

Israel Accused Of West Bank 'Ethnic Cleansing'

With demolitions rising in the occupied West Bank, the UN claims Israel is using planning laws in a "discriminatory" manner.

The Israeli military has dramatically increased the number of demolitions of Palestinian homes and other buildings in the occupied West Bank, according to the United Nations.

Figures collated by the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) show that there have been an average of 165 demolitions a month since January.

In February alone, 235 buildings were taken down, and the UN agency has claimed people are being driven from the land as a result.

The Israeli military, which has occupied the West Bank for nearly 50 years, claims it carries out the demolitions because the structures are illegal and do not have the necessary planning permits

But left-wing politician and member of parliament, Dov Khenin, claims the government is trying to appropriate the land so Israelis can settle there in the future.

In a statement to Sky News, it said: "The civil administration, by its power, takes enforcement measures against any sort of illegal construction in Area C." 

finaly The UN says the use of the law is "restrictive" and "discriminatory", and the people most affected are Bedouin and Palestinian farmers.

Soma Zaidi

Sunday, May 1, 2016 No Comments

Turkey: deadly car bomb targets Gaziantep police HQ

At least one policeman has been killed in a car bomb blast near a police headquarters in the south-east Turkish city of Gaziantep, officials say.

Nineteen police and four civilians are reported to have been injured by the early-morning explosion.

The blast was heard several kilometres away, CNN Turk TV reported.

Turkey has been hit by a series of deadly blasts over the past year, linked either to Kurdish militants or so-called Islamic State (IS).

Ankara, Istanbul and Bursa are among cities that have been targeted by suicide bombings.

How dangerous is Turkey's instability?

Some reports said gunfire was heard after the blast, which occurred at about 09:30 local time (06:30 GMT). There was no immediate word on who is behind the latest blast.

The police building is close to several government offices, including that of the governor and mayor, the AP news agency said.

Gaziantep, which is near the Syrian border, is known to have several IS cells.

In another development, Turkish police detained four suspected IS members in Ankara, the Anadolu news agency reports.

Soma Zaidi

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Iraqi forces fire tear gas at protesters(news now)

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Latest on anti-government protests in Iraq

Iraqi security forces have fired tear gas on protesters at one of the entrances to the Green Zone as hundreds of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr continue to stream into the highly fortified government compound.

Associated Press reporters at the scene say thousands of protesters have entered the Green Zone since breaching the walls and storming parliament earlier on Saturday.The heavily guarded area is home to most government ministries and foreign embassies.

The entry of the protesters marks a major escalation after months of demonstrations and sit-ins by al-Sadr's followers, who are calling for wide-ranging political reforms aimed at combatting corruption and waste.

Soma Zaidi

Saturday, April 30, 2016 No Comments