Scientists have developed a new method based on blockchain technology to help verify and trace natural diamonds, and fully guarantee their authenticity.
In a situation where natural, synthetic and fake stones exist in the diamond market, the system could protect the financial assets of market participants, said researchers from the National University of Science and Technology in Russia.
The modern diamond industry is undergoing a period of global restructuring, they said.
This expansion is explained by scientific achievements that are pushing for an increase in diamond volumes for potential applications, both for jewelery and industry.
Modern synthetic diamonds are almost as good as natural diamonds in terms of quality and chemical composition. With these trends, gemologists often cannot distinguish a good synthetic diamond from a natural one.
Taking into account the growth of the market and the multiple possible diamond origins, the guarantee of authenticity is becoming crucial.
A ..

Blockchain technology to help verify natural diamonds

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An Indian-American couple was found dead in their home in an apparent murder-suicide at an affluent suburb in the US state of Texas, police said.
Police officers were called to the house in Sugar Land on Monday around 6 am.
They found the bodies of Sreenivas Nakirekanti, 51, and his wife, 46-year-old Shanti Nakirekanti at the scene.
They said Shanti was found with a gunshot wound to her head in the driveway of the home on Pendergrass and Sheffield Court.
Sreenivas was found in the bedroom with a gunshot wound to the chest and a small handgun nearby, police said.
Police said a preliminary investigation indicates Sreenivas shot and killed Shanti and then turned the gun on himself.
According to the authorities a 16-year-old girl was asleep in the home at the time of the shooting. She answered the door for police when they arrived and told them her dad was not coming out of the bedroom.
She was not injured. The daughter is now in the care and custody of friends, Sugar Land city spokesman .

Indian-American couple found dead in apparent murder-suicide

The arrest in Russia of prominent US and French investors on suspicion of fraud has sent shockwaves through Western business circles and sparked fears of cutbacks in foreign investment sorely needed for economic growth.
The founder and employees of the Baring Vostok private equity firm were arrested on Friday in a case brought with the help of the FSB security service.
The arrest took place on the same day Russia hosted leading business people in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for a major economic forum which trumpeted the country's openness to investment.
Michael Calvey, a US citizen and the founder and director of Baring Vostok, has been placed in pre-trial detention in a Moscow jail for the next two months for alleged fraud, along with five others - including Philippe Delpal, a French citizen.
They are accused of defrauding Vostochny Bank of at least 2.5 billion rubles (USD 37.7 million). All of them deny any wrongdoing and blame the case on a shareholder dispute.
In an opinion ...

Russian arrests of foreign businessmen shocks Western investors

The founder of Chinese telecom giant Huawei has hit back at US efforts to blacklist the company, saying defiantly that the world cannot do without Huawei and its "more advanced" technology.
"There's no way the US can crush us," Ren Zhengfei said in an interview with the BBC.
"The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced." Ren, 74, also denounced as "politically motivated" the December arrest of his daughter, Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who is accused of violating US sanctions against Iran and faces an extradition hearing in Canada next month.
"We object to this," he said.
"But now that we've gone down this path, we'll let the courts settle it." The normally media-shy Huawei founder has been forced to step into the limelight in recent months as the company has come under increasing pressure over espionage concerns and the US-led campaign to persuade other countries to ban its technology.
Last year, security concerns prompted Australia to ban Huawei equipment .

Huawei's founder says world can't live without it

After years of struggling alone or finding support in national groups, survivors of sex abuse by priests have formed a new international alliance to pressure the Catholic Church to face up to its crimes.
The group, called Ending Clerical Abuse (ECA), brings together activists from dozens of countries on several continents, and will be mobilised in Rome this week when Pope Francis hosts a hotly awaited summit on tackling the wave of child sex abuse scandals shaking the Catholic Church.
"It's a momentous and a historic movement... to bring a global and unified voice," one of its co-founders, Peter Saunders, told AFP. "This is the first truly global initiative."
Saunders' personal story is among countless others suffered by people who grouped together to form ECA last June, including survivors from Chile, Poland, Switzerland, France, Italy, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.
"I was abused at seven years old by a family member. I was also sexually abused by two Jesuit ..

Victims of Church sex abuse go global with fight for justice

The North Korean special representative for the US arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, apparently en route to Vietnam to meet his Washington counterpart ahead of a second scheduled summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.
Kim Hyok Chol arrived in the Chinese capital at around 10 am (0200 GMT) and was expected to board a plane bound for Hanoi later in the day.
Kim's trip comes three days after Kim Jong Un's de-facto chief of staff, Kim Chang Son, landed in Hanoi to discuss protocol and security matters with the US team ahead of the summit on February 27-28.
Kim Hyok Chol and his US counterpart Stephen Biegun were engaged in three days of talks in Pyongyang earlier this month, exploring each side's positions on denuclearisation ahead of the much-anticipated meeting.
Biegun said they had been productive, but more dialogue was needed.  "We have some hard work to do with the DPRK between now and then," Biegun said, adding that he was "confident that if 

N Korean envoy en route to Hanoi ahead of Trump-Kim summit: Yonhap

Sudanese protester Osman Sulaiman has taken to the streets of Khartoum chanting "overthrow, overthrow" almost daily since demonstrations erupted against President Omar al-Bashir's iron-fisted rule in December.
And he insists he has no intention of stopping now.
"We have to fight our battle if we have to secure our future and the future of our country," Sulaiman, an engineering graduate who has been unemployed for years, told AFP.
As the protest campaign against Bashir's regime enters its third month on Tuesday, demonstrators are pressing on with rallies despite a show of defiance from the veteran leader and a sweeping crackdown by the authorities.
Officials say 31 people have died in protest-related violence so far, while Human Rights Watch says at least 51 have been killed including medics and children.
Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists have been jailed by agents of the feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).
"The protesters' ...

Sudan protesters remain resilient, but Bashir unbowed

A "new day" is coming in Latin America and the days of socialist dictatorships are over, US President Donald Trump has said as he issued a dire warning to the Venezuelan military to abandon their support for President Nicolas Maduro or "lose everything".
Speaking at Florida International University in Miami, Trump said the US stood behind the people of Venezuela who are standing for freedom and democracy.
The Venezuelan military could play a decisive role in ending the months-long political crisis, but has largely remained loyal to Maduro.
Venezuela has also lurched into an economic crisis that has left the country suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.
"We want to restore Venezuelan democracy, and we believe that the Venezuelan military and its leadership have a vital role to play in this process. If you choose this path, you have the opportunity to help forge a safe and prosperous future for all the people of Venezuela," Trump said.
He said more than 50 ...

Abandon support for Maduro, Trump warns Venezuelan military

Socialite and reality TV star Paris Hilton has revealed that she is working on new music and it will be out soon.
The track will mark her first in 12 years. In 2006 the hotel heiress released her debut album "Paris" .
The album peaked at Number. 6 on the Billboard 200, and the debut single, "Stars are Blind," reached 18 on the Hot 100.
"Back in the studio. New music coming soon" Hilton posted on Twitter.
In 2008, Hilton announced that she had finished a second album, but it was never released.

Paris Hilton to release new music

Climate change is shifting the energy in the atmosphere that fuels summertime weather, which may lead to stronger thunderstorms and more stagnant conditions for regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including India, an MIT study has found.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that rising global temperatures, particularly in the Arctic, are redistributing the energy in the atmosphere.
More energy is available to fuel thunderstorms and other local, convective processes, while less energy is going towards summertime extratropical cyclones -- larger, milder weather systems that circulate across thousands of kilometers.
These systems are normally associated with winds and fronts that generate rain.
"Extratropical cyclones ventilate air and air pollution, so with weaker extratropical cyclones in the summer, you are looking at the potential for more poor air-quality days in urban areas," said Charles Gertler, a graduate student at the ...

Climate change making summer weather stormier: Study

Singer-actor Mandy Moore has opened up about her former marriage to musician Ryan Adams calling it "an entirely unhealthy dynamic".
During an appearance on the Sunday episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Moore said she was "sad and lonely".
"I was living my life for him. It (was) an entirely unhealthy dynamic. I had no sense of self. I felt like I was drowning. It was so untenable and unsustainable and it was so lonely. I was so sad," Moore, 34, said.
The interview comes in light of the recent New York Times article in which Adams was accused of sexual misconduct and emotional abuse by multiple women, including Moore.
She added that pressure from Adams led to her working less.
"I got married in 2009, and that's when things really quieted down for me...I would do little jobs. It's not like I completely stopped working. I would do things here or there, but it would become abundantly clear while I was working, things would fall completely apart at home.
"I couldn't do my job because ...

I was lonely with him: Mandy Moore on her marriage to Ryan Adams

Scientists have identified a gene that may be activated to reverse symptoms of major depression such as social isolation and loss of interest.
The team found that making the SIRT1 gene inactive in excitatory neurons in male mice created symptoms of depression.
According to the study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, a drug that activated SIRT1, reversed the symptoms.
"It has an antidepressant-like effect," said Xin-Yun Lu, a professor at Augusta University in the US.
That means drugs that activate SIRT1 and enable the usual high level of activity of these excitatory neurons might one day be an effective therapy for some with major depression, said Lu.
The firing of excitatory neurons is definitely decreased in depression, and neurons are not communicating as they should. Problems like manic behaviour and seizures, on the other hand, indicate excessive firing.
It is hard to get excited without energy, and another of SIRT1's known roles in brain cells is regulating cell ...

Gene that may help reverse depression identified

Netflix has cancelled two Marvel superhero series "Jessica Jones" and "The Punisher" hinting at the end of its licensing partnership with Disney-owned Marvel.
The announcement comes after the streaming giant ended its other Marvel series --  "Daredevil", "Iron First" and "Luke Cage".
Netflix said in a statement, "Marvel's 'The Punisher' will not return for a third season on Netflix. Showrunner Steve Lightfoot, the terrific crew, and exceptional cast including star Jon Bernthal, delivered an acclaimed and compelling series for fans, and we are proud to showcase their work on Netflix for years to come."
"In addition, in reviewing our Marvel programming, we have decided that the upcoming third season will also be the final season for Marvel's Jessica Jones.' We are grateful to showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, star Krysten Ritter and the entire cast and crew, for three incredible seasons of this groundbreaking series, which was recognized by the Peabody Awards among many others. We are ...

Marvel's 'Jessica Jones' and 'The Punisher' cancelled by Netflix

Queen, the band at the centre of best picture nominee "Bohemian Rhapsody",  will perform at the Academy Awards ceremony, the Motion Picture Academy announced on Tuesday.
"Queen + @adamlambert will ROCK YOU," the post shared on the official Twitter handle of the Academy read.
The band now performs under the name Queen + Adam Lambert, with two of the four original members, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, fronted by former "American Idol" star Adam Lambert.
Bassist John Deacon has not performed with Queen for many years.
"We will rock The Oscars," Lambert tweeted.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is up for five Oscars.

Queen to perform at Oscars

Players will be allowed to wear shorts in PGA Tour practice and pro-am rounds under a change in player appearance guidelines unveiled Monday.
The change, effective immediately, applies only to tournaments on six tours operated under the PGA Tour umbrella.
Long pants will remain required attire for all official competition rounds.  This week's World Golf Championships Mexico Championship and the US PGA Puerto Rico Open will be the first tournaments offering golfers the apparel option.
The move follows years of discussions about shorts being worn during non-competition days with positive feedback from players, fans, sponsors and tournaments for the change.
"It makes the guys a lot more comfortable," four-time major winner Rory McIlroy said of wearing shorts.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with professional golfers showing the lower half of their leg."
James Hahn, co-chairman of the PGA Tour Advisory Council, informed PGA players of the rule change in a video posted on ...

PGA Tour approves shorts for practice, pro-am rounds

Tiger Woods, a 14-time major winner, is paired with Mexico's Abraham Ancer and American Bryson DeChambeau in the first two rounds of the WGC Mexico Championship, organizers announced Monday.
Woods, whose 80 career US PGA titles are two shy of Sam Snead's career record, shared 15th in last week's tour event at Riviera and remains a fan favorite at age 43 even though he last won a major crown at the 2008 US Open.
His group was among four featured threesomes announced early for the first two rounds of the matchup at Club de Golf Chapultepec, which will be the first competitive event played by Woods in Mexico.
Woods owns a record 18 WGC titles from nine different locations worldwide. DeChambeau has won four of his past 10 worldwide starts, two of them in last year's PGA Tour playoffs.
Ancer won last December's Australian Open and ranks sixth on the list of Internationals team qualifiers for the team showdown later this year in Australia against an American squad to be guided by ...

Tiger joined by DeChambeau, Mexico's Ancer in WGC opener

Italian third-tier side Pro Piacenza were on Monday excluded from Serie C after fielding a team of just seven players in a 20-0 defeat by league rivals Cuneo, governing body Lega Pro announced.
Financially troubled Pro Piacenza, a side from northern Italy, have been unable to pay their players and staff, who have been on strike for several weeks.
Before Sunday's game at Cuneo in Piedmont, northern Italy, bottom club Pro Piacenza had already forfeited three matches and a fourth would have seen them kicked out of Serie C.
So they took to the pitch with seven players, all teenagers born between 2000 and 2002. An eighth player could not initially start having forgotten his identity papers, and came on after an hour.
One of the two players born in 2000 was named on the match sheet as the coach, with a team physiotherapist even taking to the pitch at one point to substitute a player who was suffering from cramps.
Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina had slammed the match ..

Italian side kicked out of Serie C after 20-0 defeat

Leeds United have escaped a points penalty in their quest to be promoted to the Premier League after it was announced Monday they had been fined GBP 200,000 (USD 259,000, 229,000 euros) and reprimanded for spying on their opponents.
Leeds faced an investigation by the English Football League after veteran manager Marcelo Bielsa admitted sending someone to spy on Derby at their training ground ahead of a match last month.
The club formally admitted a breach of Regulation 3.4 which states: "In all matters and transactions relating to the League, each Club shall behave towards each other Club and The League with the utmost good faith."
Many were uncertain, however, whether Bielsa had committed a specific offence and the EFL now plan to clarify the situation by introducing a new rule that bans teams from viewing opposition training in the 72 hours immediately before a match, unless invited to do so.
EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey, announcing the punishments against Leeds, said Monday: ..

'Spygate' Leeds fined 200,000 pounds but no points deduction

Inter Milan's Chinese president Steven Zhang on Monday ruled out selling unsettled Argentine forward Mauro Icardi to Serie A rivals Juventus.
It follows comments from Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici that the champions would keep an eye on the striker's situation in the summer after he was stripped of the captain's armband during the week.
"Will Icardi ever join Juventus? No, never," said Zhang after a shareholders' meeting at the San Siro on Monday.
"This has been spoken about a lot in the past week and a lot of confusion has been created. I would like to put an end to this topic because the club has already made a decision and continuing to talk about it doesn't help us to achieve our goals.
"Icardi is a great player, he's a professional and a very important member of our family. We are in negotiations to renew his contract, and he's an important player for this club."
Icardi, who turns 26 on Tuesday, watched from the stands with his wife and agent Wanda Nara as Inter beat .

No chance Icardi going to Juventus, says Inter president Zhang

Portuguese winger Nani, a four-time Premier League champion and 2008 UEFA Champions League winner with Manchester United, signed a three-year contract Monday with Orlando City of Major League Soccer.
The 32-year-old who helped Portugal win the 2016 European crown joined the Florida side on a free transfer from Sporting Lisbon.
"This is an exciting day for our organization," Orlando City executive vice president of soccer operations Luiz Muzzi said.
"Nani brings tremendous experience to our roster. He's a dynamic winger with quality abilities to move and cross the ball, impact games and lead the offensive play."
The Lions need all those things after a miserable 2018 campaign, with only eight wins and four drawn from 32 matches for the second-worst record in MLS, last in the Eastern Conference with 28 points.
Nani had nine goals in 58 appearances with Sporting as a teen star before joining compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo in 2007 at Old Trafford, where he would remain through 2014 with 41 ..

Orlando signs Portuguese winger Nani to three-year deal

Los Angeles Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic set an exceptional challenge for the upcoming Major League Soccer season on Sunday, vowing to rewrite the league record book this year.
The 37-year-old Swedish superstar unveiled new Galaxy jerseys in a flashy entrance, then told a crowd of fans his ambitious plans for the 2019 campaign.
"This season I will bring something to you. I will break every record in the MLS this season," Ibrahimovic said.
Zlatan scored 22 goals and set up 10 others in 27 MLS contests last season, launching him into the new season with great expectations.
The Galaxy, who host their season opener against Chicago on March 2, went 13-12 with nine drawn last season to miss the MLS playoffs by a single point.
Among the more impressive MLS records Zlatan would be trying to shatter are goals in nine consecutive games, an assist in eight consectuve matches and four goals in one half.
Josef Martinez of Atlanta set the one-season MLS goals record with 31 in 34 games played .

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