MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced Thursday the couple had finalised their divorce, and that she would surrender 75 per cent of the couple's shares in the tech giant.
Bezos also said she would surrender all of her stake in The Washington Post and the space exploration firm Blue Origin to her ex-husband, as well as voting control of her remaining Amazon shares.
"Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness," MacKenzie Bezos wrote on Twitter.

Bezos ex-wife to surrender 75% of couple's Amazon shares

PTI Automatic

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday warned France to drop plans for a tax on digital giants such as Facebook and Apple, saying it would hurt American business.
The top US diplomat raised his objections as he met French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Washington during 70th anniversary celebrations for the NATO alliance.
"Secretary Pompeo urged France not to approve a digital services tax, which would negatively impact large US technology firms and the French citizens who use them," the State Department said in a statement.
France last month unveiled draft legislation to set a three percent tax on digital advertising, the sale of personal data and other revenue from any technology company that earns more than 750 million euros (USD 841 million) worldwide each year.
The effort comes amid rising public outrage at the minimal tax paid by some of the world's richest firms which base operations in jurisdictions that charge low rates.  France has led the effort after a ...

Pompeo warns France against new tax on digital giants

An English amateur cup final was abandoned 12 minutes before the end of the match on Wednesday after alleged racist remarks from the crowd.
The Saturday Vase Final between FC Wymeswold and Cosby United, watched by around 200 people, is being investigated by the Leicestershire and Rutland County FA, who said they would take the "necessary discipline action".
Linford Harris, the Wymeswold player who allegedly received the racist abuse tweeted: "So sorry to witness and suffer such racism in this day and age, thanks everyone for the support.
"Appreciate everyone standing behind me. WE ARE ALL EQUAL. #SayNoToRacism." Leicestershire Police said no official complaint had been made to them about the incident.
A number of racist incidents of late at the top level of European football has seen rising calls for games to be halted when such abuse takes place.
England players were targeted during a recent 5-1 win in Montenegro, while Juventus teenager Moise Kean took a stand against racist abuse ..

Amateur cup final abandoned due to racist abuse

Donald Trump wanted a victory lap after the apparent flop of the Russia collusion probe, but on Thursday, 11 days later, the president instead found himself being chased in circles.
Over and over the president has crowed that special counsel Robert Mueller's massive investigation into the Trump team's links to Moscow resulted in total "exoneration."
But that claim is based on the conclusions of Trump's handpicked attorney general William Barr who released a four-page summary of the still secret report. The actual report, running hundreds of pages, has yet to be released publicly.
And US media reports have now quoted sources from the previously almost totally leak-proof Mueller team saying that Barr's characterization glossed over potentially damaging findings.
"Members of Mueller's team have complained to close associates that the evidence they gathered on obstruction was alarming and significant," The Washington Post said late Wednesday.
The New York Times -- another mainstay of ...

Trump's Russia report victory turns sour

Catalonia's separatist president, who has lacked a majority in the regional parliament since October, was under pressure Thursday from opposition parties to call snap polls in the Spanish region.
The 135-seat Catalan regional parliament approved a non-binding motion criticising Quim Torra's "ineffectiveness" and demanding that he "immediately face a no-confidence motion or call elections" by a slim margin of 62 votes in favour and 61 against.
The motion was backed by parties that oppose independence for the wealthy northeastern region while radical separatist parties abstained from voting.  Torra ruled out both options. "We continue to govern with all our republic ambition intact," he wrote on Twitter.
His coalition government, made up of Catalonia's two main separatist parties, JxC (Together for Catalonia) and ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), has been strained by difference over strategy, loss of support and an inability to pass a budget for 2019.  The separatist block lost its ...

Catalonia's president pressed to call fresh election

France's Constitutional Council on Thursday struck down a measure that would have let authorities ban certain individuals from protesting, a key element of the government's plan to crack down on violence at "yellow vest" demonstrations.
The council, which rules on the validity of laws, said the proposal gave officials "excessive latitude" to justify the individual bans against people suspected of being "a particularly serious threat to law and order."
The move was inspired by anti-hooligan measures that keep out known troublemakers from football stadiums, but critics said it arbitrarily infringed on a person's right to freedom of speech and assembly.
But the council upheld other measures of the law passed on March 12, such as more severe penalties for organisers of unauthorised demonstrations, and for people who cover their faces during violent protests.
Demonstrators who defy protest bans will now face up to six months in prison and fines of up to 7,500 euros (USD 8,400), while those 

French authority rejects pre-emptive 'yellow vest' protest bans

An Airbus jet operated by EgyptAir that crashed over the Mediterranean almost three years ago, killing all 66 people on board, should have been grounded because of a series of technical issues on previous flights, according to a French investigation.
The report, ordered by the French judiciary, stops short of drawing firm conclusions about the precise cause of the disaster but makes clear a serious of previous issues with the plane should not have been ignored.
Flight MS804, which was bound from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport to Cairo, plunged into the sea between Crete and the northern coast of Egypt after disappearing from radars.
All passengers and crew on board, including 40 Egyptians and 15 French citizens, lost their lives in the crash of the A320.
The Egyptian authorities rapidly suggested that the crash was due to an attack, but French officials have always preferred the theory that it was caused by a technical problem.
Three Paris judges investigating the case ordered two .

Doomed EgyptAir Airbus 'should not have taken off', French report says

Eleven bank robbers were shot dead Thursday after Brazilian military police busted a gang trying to blow up ATM machines near Sao Paulo, officials said.
Police arrested one assailant and a manhunt is still under way for the rest after they fled two banks in Guararema municipality, 80 kilometers northeast of Brazil's biggest city, the Sao Paulo state government said in a statement.
Some of the fleeing attackers forced their way into a house where they held the occupants hostage. The hostages were later freed by police.
Around 25 assailants were involved in the early morning raid, according to the statement.
Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria congratulated the police for sending "more than 10 gangsters to the cemetery," in remarks to GloboNews TV.
During a search of the area, police found seven rifles, four pistols, explosives and bulletproof vests.
Brazilian TV showed one of the banks targeted by the gang was located next to a police station. The other bank was at the end of the same ...

Eleven bank robbers shot dead in Brazil

Battles over Brexit have worn down British MPs, who are now being offered counselling to cope with the "extraordinary pressure" they have been under.
The Daily Telegraph reported that House of Commons Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle had written to all MPs to inform them about a 24-hour counselling phone line.
"It is vital that in times of heightened stress in the workplace we can access the necessary health and wellbeing support," Hoyle wrote, a day after a particularly intense parliamentary session that ended after midnight.
Despite enormous pressure, British MPs have voted down Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal three times this year but have failed to agree on any alternatives.
The two main parties, the ruling Conservatives and the Labour opposition, are now locked in talks to attempt to find a compromise that could pass through parliament.  Security measures have in any case been stepped up around parliament because of angry heckling -- mainly from hardline Brexit supporters ...

British MPs offered counselling for Brexit pressure

French police were searching Thursday for a team of robbers who stole thousands of euros' worth of jewels and luxury clothing in a nighttime raid at a plush hotel in Paris, police said.
Two men wearing balaclavas and gloves entered the Peninsula hotel, just a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe, shortly after midnight and held employees at gunpoint, police sources said.
One of the attackers then used an axe to break into four display cases, making off with items worth 350,000 to 400,000 euros (USD 390,000 to USD 450,000).
An accomplice then drove them away in a car that was found burning shortly afterwards in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine west of the capital.
No shots were fired and no one was injured in the robbery, the sources said.
France's organised crime brigade has taken over the inquiry.
Luxury Paris hotels have been the target of several robberies in recent years, as have jewellery stores and wealthy tourists visiting the city.
In January 2018, three men were charged over 

Thieves grab jewels in Paris hotel raid

Boeing on Thursday said it would take "any and all" necessary safety measures to ensure the airworthiness of its jets following last month's deadly crash in Ethiopia.
The statement came hours after Ethiopian investigators said the pilots of a doomed Boeing 737 MAX 8 had repeatedly followed Boeing's recommended procedures prior to crashing on March 10.
"We will carefully review the... preliminary report and will take any and all additional steps necessary to enhance the safety of our aircraft," Kevin McAllister, head of Boeing's commercial aircraft division, said in a statement.

Boeing says will take 'any and all' needed safety steps after Ethiopia crash

US lawmakers voted Thursday to end military support for the bloody Saudi-led war in Yemen, dealing a harsh bipartisan rebuke to Donald Trump and taking the historic step of curtailing a president's war-making powers.
The House of Representatives voted 247 to 175, with one congressman voting present, to approve a resolution that directs the president "to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting the Republic of Yemen" within 30 days.
The text cleared the Senate last month and now heads to Trump, who is expected to veto the legislation.
The White House has called the measure "flawed" and warned it would harm bilateral relations in the region, including with Saudi Arabia.
But the passage through Congress marked a historic milestone, as it was the first time in history that a measure invoking the 1973 War Powers Resolution will reach the president's desk.
Several Democrats have argued that the US involvement in the Saudi-led coalition fighting Huthi rebels -- ...

Congress ends US support for Yemen war, Trump likely to veto

An enormous fire erupted Thursday in the South Korean border town of Goseong, leaving at least two dead and forcing more than 3,000 people to evacuate, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Strong winds fanned the flames in the town, located in mountainous northeastern Gangwon province near the frontier with North Korea, the report said, citing fire officials.
The National Fire Agency dispatched firefighters from across the nation, Yonhap said, but the winds were complicating efforts to control the blaze.
Authorities issued the highest-level alert -- level three -- and President Moon Jae-in has told officials to take all measures necessary to battle the inferno.
Police found the body of a man on a road, apparently dead as a result of the fire, Yonhap said. A woman in her 70s also lost her life.
Eleven others were injured, but that toll was expected to rise, and damage to "numerous" buildings was reported.
Local officials said the fire broke out alongside a road in Goseong, which is located 

2 dead in South Korea blaze: Yonhap

President Donald Trump said Thursday that US-China trade talks are progressing "very nicely" but that he insists on all US concerns being resolved or will not sign a deal.
"It looks like the deal is moving along very nicely," he told reporters at the White House, where he was due to meet Chinese trade envoy Liu He later in the day.
"Everything is covered, there's nothing that's not covered," Trump said, referring to the scope of US demands.
"It's got to be a great deal," he said. "If it's not a great deal, we're not doing it.

US-China trade negotiations progressing 'very nicely': Trump

The White House on Thursday stoked anticipation President Donald Trump could announce a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to finalize a trade agreement resolving their nine month-trade war.
Both US and Chinese officials have projected cautious optimism for months but momentum has slowed as the two sides tussle over whether and when Washington should remove the punishing tariffs it imposed last year on Chinese goods.
Chinese trade envoy Liu He is due to meet with Trump later in the day at the conclusion of the latest round of talks, while US officials have said the negotiations are near an end one way or the other.
Trump tweeted earlier that the talks, as well as efforts to ratify a new agreement on North American trade, were "moving along very nicely," renewing the positive mood that officials have projected since January.
Last year, Trump launched a trade war with China, seeking to slash that country's soaring trade surplus with the United States, end alleged unfair ...

Anticipation mounts for Trump-Xi summit as US-China talks near end

Germany's armed forces drew a severe rebuke Thursday from workers at Ford and Volkswagen over a recruitment advertising campaign that some said lacked respect.
In its bid to attract employees who are facing job cuts at the German plant of US auto giant Ford, the army took out an ad in a local tabloid bearing the slogan "Job's gone? Do what really pays".
But the wordplay involving the use of the German word "Fort" for a job being "gone", presented in Ford's logo, proved a step too far.
Ford's worker's council slammed the campaign as "disrespectful".
"The armed forces are trying to push its own interests with no consideration for the difficult situation faced by our company and the sensitive atmosphere among the employees," it said in a post on Facebook.
The workers' council said Ford had sought in the last few days to stop the campaign. But the defence ministry had been unwilling to engage, it said.
Defending the campaign, a spokesman for the ministry said its aim was to "present ...

German army rebuked for 'disrespectful' Ford, VW ad

The US House voted Thursday to end military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, dealing a bipartisan rebuke to Donald Trump and taking the historic step of curtailing a president's war-making powers.
The House of Representatives voted 247 to 175, with one congressman voting present, to approve a resolution that directs the president "to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting the Republic of Yemen" within 30 days.
The text, which passed the Senate last month, now heads to Trump, who is expected to veto the legislation. The White House called the measure "flawed" and warned it would harm bilateral relations in the region, including with Saudi Arabia.

Congress ends US support for Yemen war, Trump veto likely

France on Thursday became the first country to ban a type of breast implant that has been linked to a rare form of cancer.
The ban covers certain types of implants with a textured surface or polyurethane coating.
The National Agency for Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) said the ban was a "precautionary measure" taken in light of the "rare but serious danger" posed by the implants, which have been linked to anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (BIA- ALCL), a rare type of cancer that attacks the immune system.
But it did not recommend that the some 70,000 women believed to have received the implants -- of an estimated 400,000-500,000 French implant wearers -- undergo surgery to have them removed.
Silicone implants are used in breast enhancements, or for reconstructive purposes after a mastectomy for breast cancer. They can either be smooth, textured or coated in polyurethane.
Textured implants, which are designed to stick to the breast tissue to avoid slipping out of position, are the ...

In world first, France bans breast implants linked to rare cancer

Paleontologists have found a well-preserved fossil of a four-legged amphibian ancestor of whales, a discovery that sheds new light on the mammals' transition from land to the ocean.
The ancestors of whales and dolphins walked on Earth about 50 million years ago in the regions that now comprise India and Pakistan.
Paleontologists have previously found partial fossils of the species in North America that were 41.2 million years old suggesting that by this time, the cetaceans had lost the ability to carry their own weight and walk the Earth.
The new specimen, described in a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, is 42.6 million years old and provides fresh information on the evolution of cetaceans.
The fossil was found about 0.6 miles (one kilometer) inland from Peru's Pacific coast, at Playa Media Luna.
Its mandibles grazed the desert soil and during excavations, the researchers found the lower jaw, teeth, vertebrae, ribs, parts of front and back legs, and even the ...

Four-legged prehistoric whale fossil found in Peru

Across much of Britain's former Asian colonies, many are greeting the UK's impending departure from the European Union with a mixture of bafflement, apathy, amusement -- and a touch of schadenfreude.
Britain long justified imperial subjugation by arguing Rule Britannia brought order, stability and shared prosperity -- even after its retreat from colonialism birthed a host of troubled new nations still saddled with historical grievances and legacies to this day.
Now Brits face a chaos and internal division of their own making, alongside potential isolation and years of economic hardship -- particularly if the UK crashes out with no deal on April 12.
"I was born and brought up in this British colony called Hong Kong and used to think that the Brits were a very sensible people," remarked Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy lawmaker in the financial hub.
"I've been watching Brexit process as a former colonial person and it's almost like a farce, it's sadly funny, sadly amusing. I'm baffled as to .

Brexit chaos stirs bafflement in UK ex-colonies

Western Balkans countries agreed on Thursday to lower and eventually abolish roaming charges, in a rare act of neighbourly goodwill in region riven with political feuds.
Starting in July, the deal will cut roaming charges by 27 per cent across Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
The plan is to then "completely" abolish the charges by 2021, according to announcement from the Serbian government.
Home to some 17 million people, all of Western Balkans countries except for Albania were once part of former Yugoslavia, before it fractured in the 1990s through a series of wars that left 130,000 dead.
The EU-backed accord was signed at a digital summit in Belgrade and welcomed by enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, who tweeted "Great news...as of July you #RoamLikeAtHome".
Unlike a similar 2014 agreement, this one includes Albania and Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose independence Belgrade refuses to recognise 20 years after they were split by ...

AFP

AFP

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