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Nintendo announces the Mario Kart Tour app will be delayed until summer 2019. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2G1broD

From a history of its oil trade to a classic novel by a former president, here’s the books you need to read amid Venezuela’s current political turmoil Riots in the streets, inflation exceeding 1 million percent, two men claiming to be the rightful president and warnings of civil war – Venezuela is making a lot of headlines, none of them good. Six years after the death of Hugo Chávez died, when power passed to his protege Nicolás Maduro , the economy has imploded, democratic trappings have been stripped away, millions have fled the country and Donald Trump is threatening to aid in ousting Maduro and establish the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as president. Raul Gallegos’s Crude Nation shows how what was once South America’s most stable, wealthy country swerved towards the abyss. A former economic journalist who lived in Caracas, Gallegos dissects the nationalisations, expropriations, subsidies and controls on prices and currencies that warped the economy during Chávez’s 12-year ...

Hackers are trying to discredit the inquiry into alleged Russian interference in US politics, prosecutors say. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2Rujpbd

A study published this week has reported that methane emissions from Chinese coal mines have continued to rise, despite government regulations intended to cut the country’s pollution, potentially endangering those living near coal mines. The study , led by Scot Miller of the department of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University and published in Nature , used Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite to measure the levels of methane in China’s air between 2010 and 2015. The team found that methane emissions in 2015 were 50% higher than in 2000, an increase roughly equivalent to the total annual emissions of countries such as Russia and Brazil. There has been a parallel increase in coal production in China, with output increasing two-and-a-half fold from 2000 to 2010, with China producing 3.4 billion tonnes of coal by the end of the period. In 2006, the Chinese Government aimed to eliminate inefficiencies in the production process by setting targets for th...

Sally Rooney, Sarah Perry and Michael Donkor among those longlisted for £30,000 prize for books by writers aged 39 or under From the critically acclaimed debut of Emma Glass, a 31-year-old still working as a nurse, to the first book by 33-year-old Michael Donkor, who currently teaches English in a London secondary school, a “starburst of young literary talent” makes up the longlist for the largest prize in the world for young authors. Given to the best literary work in English by an author aged 39 or under, the £30,000 Swansea University International Dylan Thomas prize is named after the beloved Welsh poet, who died at the age of 39. It is intended to “invoke his memory to support the writers of today and nurture the talents of tomorrow”. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2RwnhZc

Tonnes of poison was laid down by drones in a project to get rid of the invasive species. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2CXz8KE

Facebook's approach to parental consent was "most concerning", says a member of its Safety Advisory Board. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2MGEtug

Mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto have backed the Uluru Statement From the Heart, a statement drafted in 2017 by Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that calls for indigenous people to be guaranteed influence in federal politics. The Australian mining industry has worked closely with indigenous groups as many of the country’s largest mineral deposits are located on or around aboriginal land, which accounts for 20% of the entire country. Mining companies have made a number of agreements with indigenous people, from paying royalties to access land to subsiding community projects, and the industry was the largest private sector employer of indigenous people in 2017, according to Mining People . BHP in particular has collaborated closely with indigenous communities, working with the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation to offer 15 scholarships a year to indigenous people to study at Australian universities. The company reports that, since 2012, 32 graduates from ...

Global mining company Anglo American has reportedly laid off 180 workers at its Los Bronces copper mine in Chile. According to Reuters, the move aims to improving productivity at the site. The company stated that the layoffs will help in tackling rising costs and improve efficiency at the mine. Located in the Andean Mountains nearly 65km north-east of Chilean capital of Santiago, the Los Bronces mine produces copper, molybdenum and cathodes. In a statement, Anglo American was quoted by the news agency as saying: “The future viability of Los Bronces requires an adjustment in the way we’re organised, how we work and the technology that we use, in order to boost our efficiency and productivity.” However, the mine’s union body has expressed its concern over the lay-offs with Union #2 staging a temporary walk-off before the announcement. The group is also considering to further intensify their protests against the move. Last year, Los Bronces produced 369,500t of copper. “Union #2 is...

India’s Ministry of Labour & Employment is reportedly set to bring new changes that will now allow women to work in underground coal mines during day time. Existing rules in the country bar women from working in underground mines. The new changes are aimed at introducing gender equity and creating new job opportunities for women. The proposed amendment will also allow women to work in open cast mines around the clock for the first time. At present, women are permitted to work in open cast mines for fixed hours during the day. If the changes are implemented, they can work in any shift in open cast mine at any time of the day. A senior official was quoted by PTI as saying: “The ministry has decided to extend the timing of women workers in coal mines initially and would be extended in other such mining sectors on the basis of the initiative. A notification in the regard has already been sent for publication and it would be enforced in next couple of days. “At present the strength ...

UN human rights experts have sought a prompt and impartial investigation into the deadly collapse of a tailing dam in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Last week, the dam at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão iron mine collapsed, killing at least 84 people with around 270 still missing. According to reports, around 430 people were working in the mine when the dam ruptured. The incident flooded the town of Brumadinho with 12 million cubic metres of mining waste. In a statement, the UN experts said: “We urge the government to act decisively on its commitment to do everything in its power to prevent more such tragedies and to bring to justice those responsible for this disaster.” The experts have also requested that the Brazilian government prioritises safety evaluations of existing dams to prevent similar incidents in the future. Additionally, they requested that the authorisation of new tailings dams be suspended until safety can be ensured. UN special rapporteur on toxics Baskut Tuncak urged the gov...

A powerful study of the EU’s border system In 1990, 20 countries had walls or fences on their borders. By 2016 that figure had risen to almost 70. According to Trilling, the EU “has perhaps the world’s most complex system to deter unwanted migrants” and its external frontier is becoming increasingly fortified. Since 1993, more than 33,000 people have died as a result of the EU’s “militarised border system”, which forces migrants to take ever greater risks. Yet the 1951 Refugee Convention obliges states to assess asylum seekers as individuals and not to force them back into countries where they are in danger. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2MHcLNU

Located just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, Rio Tinto Kennecott is a fully integrated mining operation that produces copper, molybdenum, gold, silver and sulphuric acid to be shipped around the world. Kennecott’s operations include the Bingham Canyon Mine, Copperton Concentrator, Garfield Smelter, refinery, power plant and associated facilities. Brad Lingard manages regulatory compliance and leads the implementation of new health and safety systems across Rio Tinto Kennecott’s business. He also works closely with line leaders to ensure safety standards are being followed and to develop proactive safety measures. What is Rio Tinto Kennecott’s ethos and approach to keeping its miners safe during operations? Brad Lingard (BL): We have a zero-harm approach which is underpinned by our core values of safety, teamwork, integrity, respect and excellence. We empower all employees and contractors with the authority to stop unsafe work. If something isn’t safe, we won’t do it. Work that we fe...

Those breaching sanctions aimed at cutting rising violence could face up to two years in prison. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2S9v6bN

Guardian writer on Manus Island wins $125,000 after sweeping non-fiction prize and Victorian prize for literature The winner of Australia’s richest literary prize did not attend the ceremony. His absence was not by choice. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GaGZHW

This strange, compelling autobiographical novel, first published in 1979, explores an unfamiliar aspect of the Third Reich A woman, emaciated and filthy, worms her way beneath barbed wire that may be electrified. We know this scene: we’ve watched or read it scores of times. In Luce d’Eramo’s variation, the woman beneath the fence is not trying to escape from a Nazi prison camp. She is trying to get in. D’Eramo died in 2001. Deviation , her autobiographical novel, first published in Italy in 1979, covers her experiences between the summer of 1944, when she went voluntarily to join the slave labourers in the IG Farben factory in Mainz, and late 1945 when, paralysed from the waist down, she returned to Italy. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2sYp0wy

Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, Harris ... were the apostles of atheism as fearless as they thought? Whatever happened to “New Atheism”? It was born in the febrile aftermath of 9/11, when belief in a deity – or, let’s be honest, specifically in Allah – seemed to some people a newly urgent danger to western civilisation. Sam Harris began writing The End of Faith (2004) immediately after the World Trade Center attacks, and it became a bestseller. There followed the philosopher Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell , Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion , and Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great . The men toured vigorously, but they all met together only once, and this book is the transcript of what ensued, with new brief introductions by the surviving members, Hitchens having died in 2011. Contrary to the book’s subtitle, the “atheist revolution” was not sparked by this cocktail-fuelled pre-dinner round of chat and backslapping, which took place in 2007. By then the participants could alre...

A cross-party committee says social media companies should have a legal "duty of care" to children. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2BaE9iK

The number of people who logged into the site at least once a month rose 9% last year. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2Uu7wUu

On this week’s show, Claire, Sian and Richard discuss the winner of this year’s Costa book of the year award, The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es . Then Richard sits down with Thomas Page McBee, who made history when he stepped into the boxing ring at Madison Square Gardens to fight – the first trans man to do so. His book Amateur: A True Look at What Makes a Man, explores the links between violence and masculinity as he trains for the fight, with McBee offering a unique perspective as an individual who has firsthand experience of gender stereotypes both pre- and post-transition. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2MEdn6S

The Cut Out Girl is the gripping tale of a Jewish girl who escaped the Nazis, written by her saviours’ grandson. Here, author and heroine talk about their life-affirming collaboration ‘ I must tell you a secret,” Lien de Jong’s mother said to her gently one day. “You are going to stay somewhere else for a while.” It was August 1942 in occupied Holland and De Jong was eight years old. The family was Jewish, but not observant. She would never see her parents again; they were murdered in Auschwitz six months later. She was sent to live with a non-Jewish family, the Van Eses, the first in a series of temporary homes in the Netherlands’ wartime underground network. Bart van Es is a Dutch-born English literature professor at Oxford University, who usually “writes scholarly books and articles on Shakespeare and Renaissance poetry”. He is also the grandson of Jans and Henk van Es, who, as part of the Dutch resistance, sheltered Jewish children such as Lien de Jong during the occupation. His ...

The move comes after the Belgian Gambling Commission threatened legal action over in-game loot boxes. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2MFq3uk

On 7 January 2019, the International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland notified WHO about two cases of extensive drug resistant (XDR) Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection diagnosed in the United Kingdom. Published on January 30, 2019 at 06:00AM

The car repair chain's IT system went offline on Saturday and has been experiencing problems since. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2Bbhenr

The Minerals Council of South Africa has warned that the country’s annual gold production could fall by 120 tons, and the sector could lose up to 150,000 jobs, if state-owned electricity supplier Eskom is granted permission to increase its annual electricity tariff by 15%. South Africa has struggled with power supply issues in recent years, as an increasing number of regions are being connected to the national grid without a parallel increase in the number of power plants needed to generate electricity to accommodate this increase. In response, Eskom has consistently increased energy prices, which has a significant impact on the mining industry in general – due to the power demands of mining and processing – and the gold sector in particular, as gold requires more electricity to be processed than other minerals. While the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is currently holding public hearings to gauge support for the proposed tariff, the Minerals Council has stressed ...

The world's bestselling drone-maker says it must tackle cases of employee theft. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2BbV4Sh

The app bans images of men in underwear and swimwear after "repeated suspensions by app store distributors". from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2SgJDCi

Global contracting group MACA has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Renaissance Minerals (Cambodia) to supply equipment and provide contract mining services at the Okvau Gold Project. Under the terms of the mining contract, MACA will conduct loading, hauling, drilling and blasting operations and use 100t class dump trucks at the Okvau Gold Project in Cambodia. The contract extends for seven years, and the terms of the contract include an option to extend. The deal is expected to be worth around $220m in revenue. MACA managing director Chris Tuckwell said: “MACA looks forward to assisting Emerald to develop its highly robust Okvau Gold Project and to continuing the strong working relationship we have developed over many years and across many quality successful projects, with the Board and Management of Emerald. “MACA will also apply the experience we gained in establishing both a foreign subsidiary and starting a new mine whilst working in Brazil over the last four yea...

Novelist David Keenan picks fiction, history and reportage that record the devastating conflict that convulsed Northern Ireland for three decades When I was writing my second novel, For the Good Times , it never occurred to me that we might be approaching a kind of Troubles “moment” in literature, but I did wonder. Were we finally far enough away from the events of 1968-98 to start fictionalising them? Is it necessary for there to be a sort of cultural/historical gap before we can interrogate trauma? And then Anna Burns’s superb Milkman won the Booker, Michael Hughes published Country, his inspired Homeric reimagining of the Iliad set during the Troubles, and with exciting new voices such as Wendy Erskine emerging, Belfast suddenly seemed to be ground zero for radical literary fiction, with borders once more in the news. Related: For the Good Times by David Keenan – review Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ThKakU

This joyous follow-up to The Hate U Give, about a teenage rapper, shows talent and ambition challenging stereotypes Angie Thomas’s bestselling 2017 debut The Hate U Give was the story of a 16-year-old who witnesses the police shooting of a friend. The follow-up focuses on another 16-year-old, Brianna “Bri” Jackson, who is trying to lift her family out of poverty with her rapping talent. Her life is a struggle. Her rapper father was shot dead 12 years previously by a rival gang. Her mother, Jay, has been clean of crack for eight years, but Bri constantly fears a relapse. Her beloved Aunty Pooh sells drugs, while her paternal grandmother is disdainful of Jay’s ability to care for Brianna and her brother, Trey. Often, the family has to choose between gas, electricity or food. Bri has talent. She has the lyrics, the knowledge and the passion. When she raps “Strapped like backpacks, I pull triggers. All the clips on my hips change my figure” she is challenging the hoodlum stereotype, but...

In the wake of the collapse of a dam at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão iron mine, the world’s biggest iron miner has announced that an additional 19 dams will be shut down, to prevent similar tragedies from taking place at its operations. The incident is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in Brazilian history, with 84 people confirmed dead, and around 270 still missing, after a dam collapsed, flooding the town of Brumadinho with 12 million cubic metres of mining waste. The collapse follows the 2015 Samarco disaster , when a dam collapse at a project joint-owned by Vale and BHP killed 19 people. The short period of time between the accidents, and the scale of their destruction, has prompted a strong response from Vale. The shutdown is expected to have a significant impact on the company’s production, with annual output of iron ore and iron pellets set to drop by 40 million tonnes (Mt) and 11Mt respectively. Vale expects the decline to contribute to a loss in profit of ar...

Kodal Minerals, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Future Minerals, has signed an agreement with Bambara Resources for exclusive rights to explore and an option to acquire Mafele Ouest and Nkemene Ouest concessions. The two new licence areas cover 200km² and form the Bougouni West project. They are located within 25km of the advanced Bougouni Lithium Project in southern Mali, and close to the Goulamina Lithium project owned by Birimian. With the new agreement in place, Kodal Minerals is planning a rapid exploration programme to take advantage of low-cost entry to the highly prospective ground. The company will receive the right to acquire 80% of the concession areas through option payments totalling £185,000 in cash and £195,000 in Kodal shares over three stages. Kodal Minerals CEO Bernard Aylward said: “While our primary focus continues to be the development of our Bougouni Lithium Project, this new option agreement is a fantastic opportunity for Kodal to expand in this highly pr...

Saoradh claims the social media giant removed a number of its pages from its platform. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2FYq7oy

OZ Minerals has entered into what it calls an “exploration alliance” with Australian exploration firm Red Metal, giving it the option to fund six exploration projects over the next two years. The alliance is expected to increase OZ Minerals’ exploration footprint in Australia. As part of the alliance, the company will fund mutually agreed, proof-of-concept programmes on Red Metal’s Yarrie and Nullarbor projects in Western Australia and Gulf, Three Ways, Lawn Hill and Mount Skipper projects in Queensland. OZ Minerals Exploration and Growth head Richard Holmes said: “This Alliance is borne from the experience the companies have gained working together on the Punt Hill project near the Carrapateena copper project, currently in construction in South Australia. “The projects selected for the Alliance offer a rare opportunity to gain access to large land holdings in terranes with significant mineral endowment and frontier terranes with low cost programmes to test new concepts. “Many of ...

England's children's commissioner writes to social media companies, urging them to tackle disturbing content. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2TlA6Hr

What affects whether you get promoted? Not just your ability, argue sociologists Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison Social mobility is not a myth, but meritocracy is a sham. It is possible, though difficult, to come from a working-class background and enter the elite professions, but, as sociologists Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison point out in this innovative study, you will find it harder to progress and you’ll earn less money, even when you have the same degree from the same university as someone with more privileged beginnings. On average, in fact, you’ll earn £7,000 a year less. If you’re a black British woman with working-class origins, the “class pay gap” for those working in top jobs is an astonishing £20,000. If you’re a white upper middle-class man, the path to the top is as smooth as ever. But how does this happen? To adopt a phrase from Pierre Bourdieu , the French sociologist to whom the authors’ work is indebted – how does “social reproduction” at the top occur? Continu...

Crowdfunding site PledgeMusic seems to have run out of money, leaving musicians wondering what to do. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2sShPG9

With the country’s top two mines, Boddington and the Fimiston ‘Super Pit’ operation, both investing heavily in expansion projects, Australia could see its record production figures continue to grow. Here are the six biggest gold mines in Australia.   Boddington Newmont purchased a controlling stake in the Boddington mine in Western Australia in 2009 and has ramped up production to 787,000 ounces of gold per year, with the mine pouring its two millionth ounce of gold in 2012. The company is also optimistic that the mine will continue to be a profitable project in the long term. It has invested A$500m into an expansion project at the mine’s south pit, which aims to increase annual production to 850,000 ounces and extend the mine’s lifespan to 2025. The Australian Government also approved an expansion to the mine’s operational area in 2012, adding 29 hectares to the complex to create space for water collection facilities and storage dams, as part of Newmont’s long-term plan to fur...

They might not have been born when it was made, but Friends is a favourite programme for the young. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2HHdvUq

This powerful novel brings a fresh literary approach to the Provisional IRA, but does it reflect on our intoxication with violence, or celebrate it? Northern Ireland came to the fore last year with outstanding books by Anna Burns , Wendy Erskine and Michael Hughes. Now David Keenan, author of 2017’s accomplished and original debut This Is Memorial Device , and a Scot with Irish roots, enters the territory with a novel set in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in the 1970s and centred on members of the Provisional IRA. The loquacious narrator, Samuel McMahon, tells his story, apparently to an investigative reporter “or some other do-gooder”, while incarcerated in the Maze prison. His self-described “happy days” make up much of the novel: a frenzy of beatings, shootings, extortion and robberies with his friends and fellow Provos Tommy and Barney. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2sWWICK

A former editor of the New York Times takes an unsparing look at the decline of US journalism This book about the commercial takeover of the news business is sure to make a lot of powerful people very angry. Jill Abramson takes an unsparing look at US journalism’s moral decline; as former executive editor of the New York Times, she is someone who knows where most of the bodies are buried and is prepared to draw the reader a detailed map. Names are named, mistakes are exposed, and the writing is unforgiving and unadorned, as befits a woman with “balls like iron cantaloupes”, as one veteran journalist tells her. It is a cracking read, and a complicated one, flawed in many places yet absorbing in its frank desire to hold journalism to account for becoming overly willing to sell out to advertisers and thereby endangering its own future. Abramson compares four media organisations: the New York Times ; its longtime rival the Washington Post ; Buzz Feed ; and Vice . These last two digital m...

The Cat in the Hat author was going to destroy early story believing it was unsaleable A grateful letter from Dr Seuss to the former college classmate who stopped The Cat in the Hat author from burning his first children’s book manuscript is set to be auctioned later this week. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, was an advertising artist who had written his first tale for children, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , in 1936. It had been rejected by dozens of publishers when he bumped into Mike McClintock. As he writes in a 1957 letter to his old friend from Dartmouth College: “You picked me off Madison Ave with a manuscript that I was about to burn in my incinerator because nobody would buy it. And you not only told me how to put Mulberry Street together properly … (as you did later with the 500 Hats), but after you’d sweated this out with me, giving me the best and only good information I have ever had on the construction of a book for this mysterious mark...

Why are female authors’ adult fantasy novels so often marketed at teenagers? Why are adult fantasy novels by women often marketed at teenagers? This is the question an article on the website BookRiot has posited , arguing that unconscious sexism is to blame. “As more women’s novels get mistakenly classified as young adult, it furthers the message that grownup fantasy and sci-fi are for men. Sure, women can write for teens who like The Hunger Games , but for the ‘ real’ fantasy readers? Try again,” wrote Mya Nunnally. Sexism exists in science fiction and fantasy: until recently, the genre has remained stubbornly white and male but for the rise of authors including Nnedi Okorafor or NK Jemisin. Every time the Guardian runs reviews of sci-fi by women, commenters invariably debate whether it is sci-fi at all. But while YA fiction as we know it has been around since the 1950s, many of the popular series share common features: fantasy-romance blends usually led by a feisty-but-relatable y...

Revenue from the tech giant's signature iPhone fell 15% in the most recent quarter. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2B9bL0A

Book’s subject, Lien de Jong, 85, who survived second world war ordeal, attends ceremony The 85-year-old woman whose harrowing story is at the heart of Bart van Es’s The Cut Out Girl was in attendance to watch him win the £30,000 Costa book of the year award for the biography, which judges called “extraordinary”. Van Es and Lien de Jong embraced on stage in front of a packed room after he was announced as winner at the awards on Tuesday night. “Without family you don’t have a story. Now I have a story … Bart has reopened the channels of family,” she said. The Cut Out Girl beat Sally Rooney’s widely praised novel Normal People , Stuart Turton’s debut novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle , JO Morgan ’s poetry collection Assurances and Hilary McKay’s children’s book The Skylarks’ War to the award for the year’s “most enjoyable” book. Won in the past by authors including Sebastian Barry, Hilary Mantel, Helen Macdonald and Helen Dunmore, it brings with it a guaranteed sales boo...

Fox News Breaking News Alert FBI says it still doesn't know Las Vegas shooter's motive as it closes investigation 01/29/19 10:15 AM

The epilogue is downloaded only once the 40 hours of game-play is completed. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2FWmuzy

One of the world's favourite phone makers is fighting for its reputation. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2B8O7RS

The Indian Government is looking to expand its mining operations in the country’s north-eastern states, especially iron and coal operations, ahead of the expiry of existing mining licences in the state of Goa next year. Mining in Goa has been a productive but risky enterprise in recent years. Miners are accused of paying token fees to renew mining licences, as well as breaking environmental regulations, forcing the state to establish a special court to process accusations of illegal mining. State police have been investigating allegations of corruption and illegal practices since 2012, and the number of cases brought to the court has cast doubt over the future of mining in Goa. The country’s Supreme Court ordered a shutdown of the state’s mines in response to the accusations, causing Goa’s exports of iron ore to plummet from close to 50 million tonnes (Mt) between 2011 and 2012, to just 5Mt between 2015 and 2016. Following the closures, Indian law was changed to require all mineral ...

The judge is unhappy about the sum involved and the vagueness of promised cyber-security fixes. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2TmCtdg

IAMGOLD has announced that it will not proceed with the construction of its Côté Gold Project, in Ontario, Canada as the company awaits improved market conditions. At present, IAMGOLD remains focused on its existing operations and plans to introduce a number of new initiatives at its Saramacca, Rosebel, Essakane, and Westwood projects. The company said it will continue to advance engineering and permitting work at Côté. IAMGOLD president and CEO Steve Letwin said: “We are focused on creating superior shareholder value by allocating our capital to our best near- and long-term opportunities in a manner that is consistent with shareholder expectations, and with our goal of maintaining a strong balance sheet. “We have substantially de-risked the Côté Gold Project, from both a technical and financial perspective, and believe in its potential to positively transform the company. “However, we have decided to wait for improved, and sustainable, market conditions in order to proceed with c...

Following the kidnap and murder of Canadian mining geologist Kirk Woodman, British Columbian Premier John Horgan has pledged to refocus the state’s mining industry on its safety performance, through increased funds for mine inspections. British Columbia (BC) has boasted an impressive domestic safety record in recent years, with no fatalities recorded in 2016, and the average injury rate falling from 1.6 claims per 100 person-years of employment in 2007 to less than one claim in 2016. However, the murder of Woodman has prompted calls for a refocus on safety in Canada. The geologist, who lived in Halifax but was working in Burkina Faso with Vancouver-based Progress Minerals, was abducted from a site belonging to the company in Tiabongou on 15 January. The site is in the north of the country, which has recently seen armed conflict between security forces and what Channel News Asia is calling “jihadist groups” , which are spilling into Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali and Chad. The ...

Argonaut Gold has received federal government approval of assessment for its wholly-owned Magino Project located in Ontario, Canada. Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna made the decision, under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012. Prior to the decision, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (EA) carried out a thorough and environmental assessment of the project. Indigenous groups, the public and federal departments including Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Health Canada and Transport Canada also participated in the assessment of the project. Argonaut Gold president and CEO Pete Dougherty said: “The approval of the EA is the completion of a major milestone for the Magino Project, a process that included cooperation of the company, Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and the Canadian government to the benefit of all stakeholders. “As demonstrated in our Feasibility Study p...

ECR Minerals has announced plans to start drilling programmes at its gold projects located in the Australian territory of Victoria. The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia has signed a contract for 4,000m to 6,000m of reverse circulation drilling in Victoria. ECR plans to start drilling at the Creswick gold project this week aimed at targeting multiple quartz vein orientations identified within the Dimocks Main Shale (DMS) that extends over a 15km region. In September last year, the company’s exploration mapping identified a large gold system within the DMS, the hard-rock source of alluvial and deep lead gold. After the completion of drilling at Creswick, ECR will move the drill rig to the Blue Moon gold prospect in the Bailieston project area to follow up the significant near-surface gold intercept. ECR Minerals CEO Craig Brown said: “I am delighted to announce the commencement of this dual drill programme at Creswick and Bailieston which is seeking to test ...

Indie publisher says its #Twentyin2020 initiative will cover fiction, non-fiction and poetry and help ‘normalise’ diverse readers A group of unnamed individuals has donated £25,000 towards an independent publisher’s initiative to publish 20 black British writers in 2020, in the hope it will “normalise” black writing and authors in the UK. London independent publisher Jacaranda set out to find 20 black British writers in 2018, going through more than 100 submissions to pin down a list that spans from DD Armstrong’s reworking of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, which relocates the story of brotherhood and betrayal to modern inner-city London, to Tolu Agbelusi’s poetry collection Locating Strong Women. Jacaranda founder Valerie Brandes described the list as “a fine mix of established, recognised names and brand new voices delivering brilliant fiction, non-fiction and poetry”. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2HCnIRT

China’s expansive, multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) traverses several continents – Southeast Asia to Eastern Europe and Africa – and encompasses major projects in 71 countries. In their pursuit for a global network, it is thought that Chinese firms have secured more than $340bn in construction contracts, according to some estimates . And as building gets underway, it is expected to have a huge impact on global copper demand – both from the new projects built and the resulting economic boost they will provide. The BRI, according to new research commissioned by the International Copper Association (ICA), is likely to increase demand for copper in over 60 Eurasian countries, pushing it to 6.5 million tonnes (Mt) by 2027, a 22% increase on 2017 levels. The research, carried out by Shanghai MarchWin Consulting, goes on to predict that the surge in demand will have ramifications across the globe. Potential impact of BRI Announced in 2013 by China’s President Xi Jinpi...

Fox News Breaking News Alert Pakistan’s top court upholds acquittal of Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy 01/29/19 2:22 AM

Fox News Breaking News Alert PG&E Corp. files for bankruptcy following wildfire claims 01/29/19 2:12 AM

More than 14,000 people are affected, including thousands of visitors, Singapore's health ministry says. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2CNv1AO

Sibling child abductors, assassins on the run and a killer at large after a nuclear attack all feature in this month’s selection We’re not starved for choice these days when it comes to disturbing thrillers: murderous nannies in Leïla Slimani’s Lullaby ; foully intentioned lovers in, well, the majority of new titles. But even by these standards, Alice Clark-Platts’s The Flower Girls (Raven Books) goes to some very dark places indeed. The author, a former human rights lawyer, opens her story in 1997, as sisters Rosie and Laurel lure a toddler away from a playground. Nineteen years later, the now notorious pair are known as the Flower Girls, loathed by the press, “their parents as shocked as the rest of the world at the depravity bubbling up from their gene pool”. One of them is in prison, while the other has been given a new identity, “just like the reviled Maxine Carr, or James Bulger’s murderers”, for her own safety. It’s on her 25th birthday that a five-year-old child goes missing ...

A biography of the influential American illustrator Edward Gorey, debut crime fiction from the creator of The Killing, and a comic novel from Tibor Fischer about a documentary film-maker Mark Dery William Collins, £18.99 , pp512 Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2TcnZfP

A doctor’s wife is hooked on sex with strangers in this elegant, enigmatic follow-up to Lullaby Adèle is addicted to sex, with more or less any man who isn’t her husband and whom she doesn’t know too well: as soon as any hint of intimacy or routine announces itself in her liaisons, she cuts them off. Although she is easily frightened by groups of drunken men on the streets, she seeks out dangerous situations in which she has the illusion of control – on press trips she makes as a lacklustre, uninterested journalist, with guys she hires to bring drugs to her apartment, in the seedy surroundings of a sex shop in the Boulevard de Clichy. Occasionally, she will demand to be physically hurt, as when she asks the drug dealers to smash her genitals, leaving her vagina “just a shard of broken glass now, a maze of ridges and fissures”. Slimani ’s slender, elegantly written and translated novel is filled with such disturbing images, and her capacity to shock will come as little surprise to read...

The Chinese telecoms giant said it was "disappointed" by the US charges, which include theft and fraud. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2CPr1jb

Facebook's popularity among children fell during 2018, according to the media regulator Ofcom. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2FVye5j

Fox News Breaking News Alert 5 officers struck in Houston shooting, police say 01/28/19 4:20 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert Multiple police officers injured in Houston shooting, officials say 01/28/19 3:37 PM

Among the charges are accusations of fraud, obstruction of justice and theft of technology. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2DDWeYi

Fox News Breaking News Alert Pelosi invites Trump to give State of the Union address on February 5 01/28/19 1:40 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert US announces sweeping sanctions against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, state-owned oil company 01/28/19 1:10 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert White House holds first press briefing of 2019 01/28/19 12:15 PM

James Charles tells LBC his career has been "a wild ride", following gridlock in Birmingham. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2CO5eZ1

Hedge fund’s departure as £1.6m backer of the UK’s leading fiction award has prompted feverish speculation about the prize’s future Previous Man Booker prize winners are among those keenly awaiting the announcement of the new sponsor of the prestigious literary award, after the prize’s sponsor of almost two decades, Man Group, became the latest in a wave of companies pulling out of backing book prizes. The hedge fund, which has sponsored the £50,000 literary award since 2002, announced on Sunday that it would end its association with the prize after 2019, which cost them £1.6m a year. On Sunday, the Booker Prize Foundation said that its trustees are already in discussions with a new sponsor “and are confident that new funding will be in place for 2020”. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2SbZHVY

Carroll Technologies Group has now partnered with S&S Urethane, a leading manufacturer of urethane mining solutions, to distribute its products across the North American mining industry. S&S Urethane’s Shannon Smith said: “Our choice to partner with Carroll Technologies was based on their experience in the mining industry, a well-trained, diverse sales force that covers a large area in the south eastern USA, along with several recommendations from our customer base.” Based in Farina, Illinois, S&S Urethane has served the coal production, power generation, steel, grain, and aggregate industries across North America since 1974. It has multiple on site field crews across the continent, each equipped to set up complete abrasion-resistant liner installations and replacements wherever and whenever they’re needed. Why are ceramic and urethane linings so important for steel piping in mines? One example of abrasion protection in the mining field would be a washing plant that cle...