Police in Bangladesh's capital fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse more than 1,000 garment factory workers who were demanding that they be paid salaries and bonuses ahead of Islam's biggest holiday, witnesses and an industry official said.
The workers at Civic Apparels Ltd. in Dhaka's Shyampur area took to the streets after demanding that they be paid their salary in advance for May and a 100% bonus for Eid-al Fitr, the festival marking the end of the fasting month of Ramzan, said Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
Huq said the workers had been paid until April, but some protesters said they had not received their salaries for three months. Some said they were attacked without provocation.
Huq accused the workers of vandalizing the factory, taking the owner hostage and blocking streets outside the factory, prompting police to take action.
Witnesses said the workers threw stones at the police and about a dozen people were ...

Bangladesh garment workers clash with police over wages

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Officials in Mexico City say they have rescued 14 health workers who had been kidnapped in order to demand money from their families.
The city prosecutor's office said in a communique late Tuesday that the health workers were located in two hotels in the Tacubaya district when police were searching for another kidnap victim.
The agency didn't say how long they had been held or give details about their identity.
It said kidnappers would call their relatives and inform them that they were holding their family members and if they didn't deposit a certain quantity of money, would do them harm.
It's not clear if the case is related to harassment and sometimes attacks on health workers by people fearful of the new coronavirus. Health officials said Tuesday that 20% of the more than 54,300 confirmed infections in Mexico involve health workers.

Police say 14 kidnapped health workers freed in Mexico City

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he's considering holding a meeting in the U.S. with the leaders of the world's major economies after all because it would be a great sign to all of things returning to normal during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump had scheduled the Group of Seven summit for June 10-12 at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. But in March, he announced he was canceling the annual meeting because of the pandemic. He said the leaders would confer by video conference instead.
But Trump has recently been making an aggressive push to see the U.S. economy humming again after many businesses were closed to help slow the virus.
Now that our Country is 'Transitioning back to Greatness', I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David, Trump tweeted. The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all - normalization! Trump said the rescheduled meeting could 

Trump muses about hosting G-7 summit in US after all

The only man ever convicted in a U.S. court for a role in the September 11 attacks now says he is renouncing terrorism, al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
Zacarias Moussaoui is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado after narrowly escaping the death penalty at his 2006 trial.
He was sometimes referred to as the missing 20th hijacker, and while he was clearly a member of al-Qaida there is scant evidence to suggest he was slated to hijack a plane on Sept. 11, 2001.
Instead, prosecutors pinned responsibility on Moussaoui because they said he could have prevented the attacks if he had not lied to the FBI about his knowledge of al-Qaida and its efforts to attack the U.S. when he was arrested in August 2001.
In a handwritten court motion Moussaoui filed with the federal court in Alexandria last month, Moussaoui wrote, I denounce, repudiate Usama bin Laden as a useful idiot of the CIA/Saudi. I also proclaim unequivocally my opposition to any terrorist action, attack, propaganda 

Sept. 11 convict now says he renounces terrorism, bin Laden

A study by Milan's Polyclinic hospital indicates the coronavirus was circulating among a random sample of blood donors with no symptoms in Milan before the first domestically transmitted case was confirmed February 21 in a town less than an hour away.
The study of blood samples by donors showed that 4.6% already had antibodies against the virus at the start of the epidemic.
Researchers concluded only 1 in 20 asymptomatic carriers had developed immunity, ''clearly showing that herd immunity remains a long way off.'' That percentage rose to 7% by the beginning of April, when Italy was under lockdown.
As the lockdown wore on, longer-term immunity was more prevalent among younger donors, which researchers said indicates ''the social distancing practices seemed to have favored young people, who had time to develop long-term immunity.'' The study, involving researchers at the Polyclinic, Milan University, Sacco Hospital and the European Oncological Institute, was released in a preliminary ..

Milan study shows virus circulating in February

A 55-year-old farmer in Germany has been convicted of drowning his wife in liquid manure in 2018, after a court dismissed his claim that she fell into a slurry pit by accident.
German news agency dpa reported that the Augsburg regional court on Wednesday sentenced the defendant to 13-and-a-half years in prison for manslaughter.
Judges in the Bavarian city said they had no doubt the 51-year-old woman had fallen victim to a violent crime. The defendant's lawyer said they would appeal.
In a separate case, a court in the southern city of Ellwangen convicted a 48-year-old German man of killing his estranged wife last year by pouring gasoline over her and setting her alight.
Prosecutors said the 45-year-old victim died in a fiery blast.
The defendant was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for murder.  In Germany, 123 women were killed by their current or former partners in 2018.

German farmer jailed for drowning wife in liquid manure

Two Americans accused of helping aid former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee Japan while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges were arrested Wednesday, the Justice Department said.
Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas said Michael Taylor, 59, and Peter Taylor, 27, were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service on Wednesday morning in Harvard, Massachusetts.
The Taylors are wanted by Japan officials on charges that they helped Ghosn escape the country in December after the former Nissan boss was released on bail.
Ghosn reappeared in Lebanon, saying he had fled to avoid political persecution. Ghosn, who was charged with under-reporting his future compensation and breach of trust, has repeatedly asserted his innocence, saying authorities trumped up charges to prevent a possible fuller merger between Nissan Motor Co. and alliance partner Renault SA.
The Taylors are expected to appear before a judge via videoconference later Wednesday. There were no lawyers listed ...

US arrests 2 men accused of aiding ex-Nissan boss' escape

The European Union signaled Wednesday that it will not punish member countries for breaking the bloc's deficit rules to tackle the coronavirus but that it could condition their access to sorely-needed recovery funds on them following its advice on how to manage their budgets.
The 27-nation bloc is forecast to enter a recession of historic proportions this year as the coronavirus ravages its economies, with an average drop in output of 7.5 per cent.
Virtually every country has broken the deficit limit of 3 per cent of GDP as they've spent to keep health care systems, businesses and jobs alive.
"In all cases, apart (from) Bulgaria, we concluded that the deficit criteria of the treaty is not complied with. In normal times, this would lead to the opening of an excessive deficit procedure. But these are exceptional times," European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said.
Dombrovskis' remarks came as he unveiled advice from the EU's executive arm, the European ...

EU says virus fund access to be linked to its budget advice

The British government is to unveil legislation Wednesday that could potentially see indefinite curbs on the movements of suspected terrorists, a move that's prompted concerns over civil liberties.
The Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill, which is being labelled as the largest overhaul of terrorist sentencing and monitoring in decades, follows a series of attacks that the government said necessitated changes to terror legislation.
We promised to act and today we are delivering on that promise, Home Secretary Priti Patel said.
Under the proposed changes to the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures, courts will be able to limit the movement of individuals, including via enforced curfews and tagging, for an indefinite period, subject to review, rather than for a maximum of two years.
The bill also seeks to lower the evidence threshold for imposing curbs.
The government says the changes are necessary after 28-year-old Usman Khan stabbed several people, two fatally, near London 

UK government to unveil legislation tightening terror laws

Germany's Volkswagen has pulled a social media ad for a new car and apologized after an outcry over its racist overtones.
The ten-second spot posted on Instagram and Twitter shows a massive white hand pushing a black man away from beside a new yellow Volkswagen Golf parked on the street, then moving him to an open doorway and flicking him inside a French cafe.
Commentators on social media also noted that as the German-language slogan Der Neue Golf - The New Golf - fades into view, the jumble of letters can be read as a racial slur for a brief moment.
And the cafe's name is Petit Colon, which in French literally means the Little Colonist. Volkswagen told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the video had been pulled and that we can understand the outrage and anger.
Without question: the video is inappropriate and tasteless, Volkswagen wrote.
We will clarify how something like this could happen, and there will be consequences.
The Wolfsburg-based automaker, founded under the Nazis to .

VW pulls car ad after outcry, apologises for racist overtone

Oprah Winfrey is giving grants to the cities she's called home through her USD 12 million coronavirus relief fund.
She announced Wednesday that her Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation will donate money to organisations dedicated to helping underserved communities in Chicago; Baltimore; Nashville, Tennessee; Milwaukee; and Kosciusko, Mississippi, where she was born.
The reason I'm talking about it is because there is going to be a need for people of means to step up, Winfrey said in an interview with The Associated Press.
I mean, this thing is not going away. Even when the virus is gone, the devastation left by people not being able to work for months who were holding on paycheck to paycheck, who have used up their savings  people are going to be in need. So my thing is, look in your own neighbourhood, in your own backyard to see how you can serve and where your service is most essential. That is the real essential work, I think, for people of means.
After speaking with Chicago Mayor ..

Oprah Winfrey gives USD 12M to 'home' cities during pandemic

President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to hold up coronavirus relief money for Michigan after he said  erroneously  that the state had sent absentee ballots to millions of voters. It's not clear that he can do so.
Michigan mailed applications for the absentee ballots, not the ballots themselves. Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election," Trump tweeted Wednesday.
This was done illegally and without authorisation by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!
It was not immediately clear what steps Trump could take to delay the funds, which come from coronavirus relief spending measures he has signed into law.
Trump tagged his acting budget director, his chief of staff and the Treasury Department on the tweet.
Trump has been very vocal about his opposition to voting by mail, claiming the practice is ripe for fraud although there is scant evidence of ...

Trump threatens funding after Michigan absentee ballot move

Cambridge has become the first university in Britain to cancel all face-to-face lectures for the 2020-21 academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic, after 800 years of welcoming students to its cloisters, quadrangles and classrooms.
It likely won't be the last, as the virus threatens the foundations of the traditional student experience, and the finances of universities around the world.
Cambridge said late Tuesday that all lectures will be held virtually and streamed online until summer 2021. It said it may be possible to hold tutorials and other teaching in small groups  a key part of the university's system  when the new academic year starts in October, as long as social distancing can be followed.
The university, which has about 12,000 undergraduate students, said in a statement that the decision has been taken now to facilitate planning, but as ever, will be reviewed should there be changes to official advice on coronavirus.
The pandemic has already upended student life. ..

Cambridge University scraps in-person lectures for 2020-2021

The European Commission unveiled plans Wednesday to protect biodiversity across the 27-nation bloc while building a more sustainable food system, insisting on the need to both reduce the use of pesticides and promote organic farming.
In line with its ambition of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by mid-century, the EU's executive arm wants to halve the use of chemical pesticides by 2030 and to ensure that at least 25 per cent of agricultural land is reserved for organic farming, compared to 8% at the moment. The commission also wants to plant at least 3 extra billion trees over the next ten years.
The use of antimicrobials, which include antibiotics, should also be reduced by 50% for fish and animal farming.  According to EU figures, agricultural activities generate about 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
Nature is vital for our physical and mental wellbeing, it filters our air and water, it regulates the climate and it pollinates our crops, said Stella Kyriakides, the ...

EU wants to reduce pesticides use, promotes organic farming

Close to two dozen people have escaped from coronavirus quarantine centers in Zimbabwe, state-run media reported Wednesday, adding that others are illegally crossing the border from South Africa and not reporting to the centers.
The Herald newspaper, citing officials, reported that 23 people have escaped in the past week, 19 of them from a hotel in Beitbridge, a usually busy border town.
Zimbabwe is using schools, colleges and hotels for the mandatory isolation of people entering the country during a lockdown that is now in its sixth week.
Some returnees have complained about poor conditions at quarantine centers. Zimbabwe's government has said it is doing its best to ensure a comfortable stay.
Hundreds of people have arrived from South Africa by the busload in recent weeks. With more than 17,000 confirmed cases, South Africa has the highest number of infections in Africa.
Millions of Zimbabweans live in South Africa legally and illegally to escape worsening economic conditions back ..

Nearly 2 dozen escape from virus quarantine in Zimbabwe

Germany's Deutsche Bank says it is in good financial shape and will push ahead with cost cuts to bolster profitability - and its CEO says working from home could play a role in that.
CEO Christian Sewing said at the company's annual shareholder meeting, held online due to the coronavirus outbreak, that the company was on track to meet its goals for cutting its cost base to 17.0 billion euros ($18.6 billion) in 2022 from 21.5 billion euros last year.
The company will not pay a dividend as it carries out a far-reaching restructuring aimed at eliminating riskier and less profitable businesses and focusing on its European client base.
Sewing said financial reserves exceeded regulatory requirements and that the Frankfurt-based bank was sticking to financial goals set out last year.
He said the company was part of the solution during the crisis, advising the government on support efforts and acting as a conveyor belt for 6,500 applications for emergency credit with a volume of over 5 ...

Deutsche Bank CEO: Remote work could help company cut costs

Volkswagen said charges of securities-law violations against its CEO and board chairman are to be dropped in return for a 9 million-euro (USD 10 million) payment, removing a potential distraction for the company's management team as it copes with the virus crisis and oversees the rollout of a new generation of electric cars.
CEO Herbert Diess and Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch were charged in September with failing to tell investors in time about the company's looming diesel scandal in 2015.
The end of the case through the payment, allowed by German law, means the two do not admit wrongdoing and will not have to appear for multiple court sessions as part of a trial.
Prosecutors said the two violated securities laws that require companies to notify investors about matters that could affect the price of their shares.
The company said it had met its disclosure requirements ahead of the announcement of a notice of violation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on September 18, ...

Securities case ended against Volkswagen CEO, board chairman

A crucial election began Wednesday in the East African nation of Burundi, where President Pierre Nkurunziza is stepping aside after a divisive 15-year rule but will remain paramount leader in the country that continues to reject outside scrutiny.
The vote is one of the most important transfers of power in Burundi since independence in 1962.
Few face masks were observed, even on the ruling party's candidate, as voters crammed close to each other in line. Some paused to wash their hands.
Burundi's government has been criticized for not appearing to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously. Nkurunziza himself attended crowded political rallies. The country has 42 confirmed virus cases.
We are not afraid because the organizers did not require us to distance 1 meter, voter Ndayishimiye Innocent said. They saw that God is with us.
Regional observers are not present after being told that arriving foreigners would face a 14-day quarantine, and on Wednesday citizens and journalists said access .

Burundi holds crucial presidential election amid pandemic

A Norwegian man charged with murder and terrorism in the killing of his stepsister and the storming of an Oslo mosque should get the maximum 21 years in prison, a prosecutor said Wednesday on the final day of the trial.
Philip Manshaus, 22, is accused of first killing his 17-year-old stepsister by shooting her with a hunting rifle at their home in the Oslo suburb of Baerum on August 10.
Authorities say Manshaus then drove to a nearby mosque where three men were preparing for Eid al-Adha celebrations. He wore a helmet with a video camera attached and a bulletproof vest, police said.
Manshaus was armed with a hunting rifle and a shotgun and fired four shots with the rifle at a glass door before he was overpowered by one of the men in the mosque at the time.
One person was slightly injured when they jumped on Manshaus inside the mosque.
These actions upset the feeling of security we have in Norway, regardless of faith and ethnicity, prosecutor Johan Oeverberg said Wednesday according to .

Norway mosque attack trial wraps up, verdict next week

Spain's prime minister appears before parliament on Wednesday to ask for its endorsement to extend the state of emergency that his government has used to rein in the country's coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 27,000 people.
It would be the fifth two-week extension to the state of emergency, which is currently set to expire on Sunday. The government wants to extend it until June 7.
The path we are on is the only one that can possibly beat the virus, Prime Minister Pedro Snchez told a chamber with only a handful of members to limit contagion risks.
Thanks to all the parliament members who have supported the state of emergency because with their vote they have saved thousands of lives.
Since the start of the national lockdown on March 14, Spain has lowered a rampant COVID-19 virus contagion rate that was well over 20% to under 1% over the past week.
More than 230,000 infections have been confirmed by laboratory tests in Spain.
Snchez argues that Spain still needs to keep a ..

Spain's leader asks parliament for 2 more weeks of lockdown

Rapidly rising water overtook dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people in central Michigan, where flooding struck communities along rain-swollen waterways and the governor said one downtown could be "under approximately 9 feet of water" by Wednesday.
For the second time in less than 24 hours, families living along the Tittabawassee River and connected lakes in Midland County were ordered Tuesday evening to leave home.
By Wednesday morning, water that was several feet high covered some streets near the river in downtown Midland, including riverside parkland, and reaching a hotel and parking lots.
The National Weather Service urged anyone near the river to seek higher ground following "castastrophic dam failures" at the Edenville Dam, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of Detroit, and the Sanford Dam, about seven miles (11 kilometers) downriver.
Michigan Governor Gretchen said downtown Midland, a city of 42,000 about 8 miles (14 kilometers) downstream from the Sanford ..

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