Thousands of mourning fans have lined the streets of Mumbai to pay their respects to Sridevi Kapoor, the celebrated Bollywood actor who drowned in a hotel bathtub in Dubai over the weekend.Her body was flown home on Tuesday night in a private plane owned by Anil Ambani, a Mumbai industrialist and entertainment baron.

Early on Wednesday morning, fans had begun lining up along a security fence outside a private club near Sridevi’s home where her body had been laid out.  A string of luxury cars ferried family members, Bollywood stars and VIPs in through another gate, with squadrons of private guards keeping back crowds. One mourner, a man who gave his name only as Prashant, arrived at 7am, hours before anyone was to be allowed in. “No matter how long I have to wait, I will wait,” he said, clutching a small bouquet of flowers. “I’ll wait until I’m able to pay my respects.” “I saw all her movies,” he said, grief visible on his face.Inside the club, the actor’s body was placed on a raised platform in a hall decorated with flowers. Her extended family, including her husband, the producer Boney Kapoor, and her two daughters, stood by the platform as fans and colleagues walked past in respect.(theguardian)…[+]

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc, one of the US’s largest sports retailers, is ending the sale of all assault weapons in its stores in the wake of the recent massacre at a high school in Florida. In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Dick’s CEO Ed Stack said the company would no longer sell assault-style firearms or high-capacity magazines, and would impose a ban on sales of guns to those under age 21. “We’re taking these guns out of all of our stores permanently,” Stack said. Pennsylvania-based Dick’s is one of the nation’s largest gun sellers and sells weapons through its Dick’s Sporting Goods and Field & Stream stores.

Stack said the decision was inspired in part by the revelation that the 19-year-old Parkland high school shooter purchased a weapon at a Dick’s store. The firearm – a shotgun – was not used in the shooting. “We did everything by the book. We did everything that the law required, and still he was able to buy a gun. And when we looked at that, we said the systems that are in place across the board just aren’t effective enough to keep us from selling a gun like that,” Stack said. “And so we’ve decided we’re not going to sell the assault-type rifles any longer.”(theguardian)…[+]

Members of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association handed carnations to students as they entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school on Wednesday, two weeks after a former student gunned down 17 people inside the freshman building.

For student Madison Geller, Wednesday offered an opportunity to get back into a routine, in spite of her fears. “When I walk in there, I’m going to replay the whole thing in my head. But we have to come here and try to learn,” the high school junior said. “This week we will try to be comfortable and get back into the same routine.” Angelyse Perez, a senior, said returning offers a chance for everyone to “get through this and be together”. “But I’m graduating,” she said. “I just want to get out of here.”On 14 February an expelled classmate with an AR-15 killed 17 people in a massacre that has profoundly altered the lives of the survivors.(theguardian)…[+]

Police have found dismembered body parts believed to belong to a Japanese woman who disappeared after meeting up with an American tourist via a dating application. The gruesome discovery of a torso, arms and legs occurred a day after police found a human head in a suitcase at a lodging facility in Osaka, a major port city about 400km (250 miles) south-west of Tokyo.

The suspect has been named in Japanese media as Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar, 26, of New York. He was arrested last week on suspicion of illegally confining the woman to another short-term rental property in Osaka’s Higashinari ward. The woman, 27, went missing after telling a friend on 15 February that she was travelling from the inland city of Sanda to meet a male acquaintance, local media reported. The pair had been in contact through a dating app that matches Japanese people with foreigners, according to Kyodo News, which cited anonymous investigative sources.Those same sources said the two were seen on security camera footage entering the condominium early on 16 February, but later vision appeared to show the man repeatedly going in and out of the property carrying a large bag. Traces of blood were found at the property, where a large amount of air freshener had also been used, Kyodo reported.(theguardian)…[+]

Airstrikes and mortar attacks have resumed in the rebel-held Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta, hours into the first daily “humanitarian pause” ordered by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The fresh clashes on Tuesday highlight the limits of Russia’s influence over Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, and raise doubts about the sincerity of its effort to limit the violence. Residents and activists said the violence was continuing despite claims that a humanitarian corridor would be opened to allow civilians to escape. “Only the fighter planes have been reduced, but the shelling and land-to-land rockets are continuing,” said Nour Adam, an activist in the area. “None of the families or civilians have come out of the bomb shelters because nobody trusts the regime or the Russians.”(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN – Despite major setbacks caused by a destructive 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is reporting a year of several developmental gains for the Region.

The Bank last year approved USD364 million (mn) in loans and grants, an increase of USD58 mn on the previous year, which has paved the way for the implementation of projects that focus on strengthening resilience, building back better and placing the Caribbean further along a path toward sustainable development.

“This path will not be without challenges but CDB remains committed to partnering with our BMCs to make extreme poverty in our Region a thing of the past,” said Daniel Best, Director of Projects, CDB during the Bank’s Annual News Conference on February 7, 2018. Pointing to the Bank’s flagship poverty reduction programme, the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), in his presentation to media, Best said that the allocation of USD40.8 mn in resources from the Bank’s Special Development Fund last year is helping CDB to continue addressing the needs of the Region’s most vulnerable through the programme. In 2017, BNTF also expanded its support to include entrepreneurial development, particularly among the Region’s youth. The Director also confirmed that in 2017, the Fund completed 152 sub-projects across its participating countries.

Best highlighted that, through partnerships with international donors, CDB last year mobilised additional concessional resources for infrastructural development across the Region. The Bank, in collaboration with development partners such as Agence Française de Développement; European Investment Bank, European Union; and the Governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, mobilised and operationalised concessional resources for infrastructure projects spanning the agriculture; education; energy; and water and sanitation sectors.(CDB)…[+]

Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU) will meet to approve a coalition deal with the Social Democrats (SPD) that will take their leader, Angela Merkel, a step closer to a fourth term as chancellor in Europe’s biggest economy. The last major hurdle to end the five-month political impasse that followed the September election, however, comes next week. On 4 March, the results of a postal vote by SPD members will be announced, and that result is far less certain.

The party conference on Monday follows Merkel’s announcement of her CDU choices for a new, younger cabinet intended to revive the party, which has descended into rows about how to respond to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Merkel is to address CDU delegates at the meeting before the vote on the deal, which is expected to go through easily. The conference will also vote on the appointment of her close ally Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as CDU general secretary. Dubbed “mini-Merkel” by some media, the 55-year-old Saarland state premier is widely seen as her preferred successor and shares many of Merkel’s views – but not all.(theguardian)…[+]

At least 29 people have been killed in the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta since the UN security council passed a resolution demanding an end to the fighting, as Bashar al-Assad’s forces continue to defy international pleas for a ceasefire.

Local doctors and monitors said a suspected chlorine attack in the rebel-held area outside Damascus also left 18 people injured on Sunday evening, as residents condemned the international community’s inability to put an end to the fighting. “I am embarrassed for the UN security council,” said Ghanem Tayara, the chairman of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM), which helps run dozens of hospitals in Syria. “The mightiest nations on the planet cannot enforce the most basic standards of human rights and decency.”(theguardian)…[+]

Harvey Weinstein’s film and TV production company is to file for bankruptcy after the sexual harassment scandal that has engulfed the beleaguered firm scuppered a last-ditch $500m (£356m) deal to save the business. The company’s board said it had been forced to file for bankruptcy protection following the collapse of revived talks to sell to an investor group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet, a former official in Barack Obama’s administration. It branded the takeover proposal as “illusory”.

“While we recognise that this is an extremely unfortunate outcome for our employees, our creditors and any victims, the board has no choice but to pursue the only viable option to maximise the company’s remaining value: an orderly bankruptcy process,” the board said in a statement. The Weinstein Company has been seeking a buyer for the business, which has backed films including The King’s Speech, The Artist and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, since a wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations against co-founder Harvey Weinstein emerged last year.(theguardian)…[+]

Children are increasingly finding it hard to hold pens and pencils because of an excessive use of technology, senior paediatric doctors have warned. An overuse of touchscreen phones and tablets is preventing children’s finger muscles from developing sufficiently to enable them to hold a pencil correctly, they say.“Children are not coming into school with the hand strength and dexterity they had 10 years ago,” said Sally Payne, the head paediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust. “Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not be able to hold it because they don’t have the fundamental movement skills. “To be able to grip a pencil and move it, you need strong control of the fine muscles in your fingers,. Children need lots of opportunity to develop those skills.”(theguardian)…[+]