A Filipino maid was cruelly tied to a tree by a Middle Eastern family as punishment for leaving furniture outside in the sun, according to reports.  The woman, named Lovely Acosta, 26, had been working for a wealthy family in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for several months.  A colleague, also from the Philippines, took pictures of the alleged punishment in a bid to expose the family’s cruel work practices.  The shocking images showed the maid tied by her wrists and legs to a tree in the family’s garden on May 9.  Her employers were allegedly trying to show her the effects of staying outside in under the sun.  The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it was made aware of the situation and successfully helped the mother-of-two to return home.  A spokesman said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reports that Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Lovely Acosta Baruelo from Saudi Arabia arrived in Manila at 8.55pm on May 9.  “The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh reported that the case of OFW Baruelo was referred to them on May 9 and she was repatriated on the same day. OFW Baruelo was allegedly punished by her employer by being tied to a tree.’’  A woman who claimed to be Acosta’s co-worker appealed for help and said their employer would hurt them whenever they commit small mistakes.  Lovely has since returned to her family in La Union, the Philippines.  Speaking this week, the relieved worker said: “Thank you so much to all those who helped me. I want to also ask help for the other Filipinos left there.  “They are the ones who helped me and uploaded my pictures. I am afraid for their safety. I hope they get rescued too.  You old man will find your karma, just you wait. Keep deducting our salaries. This is the reason why you have poor health. It’s your karma for all the wrong things you did.”  An estimated 2.3 million Filipinos work in the Middle East and Africa. Of this number, more than half are women.  There have been many complaints that they are mistreated by their new employers.

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Teachers Speaking Islamic Blessings? Washington School Districts Accused of Pro-Ramadan Policies

A religious liberty advocacy group has warned two Washington state school districts it may file lawsuits unless they stop promoting Islam. The schools are accused of implementing pro-Ramadan policies that are being followed during the Islamic holy month which began on May 5 and runs through June 4.  The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) says a teacher has complained about the policy. So FCDF has sent the superintendents and school boards of the Dieringer School District and the Northshore School District, both located in the Seattle-area, “cease and desist” letters demanding the districts immediately stop their special Ramadan policies.  According to the FCDF, the Dieringer School District has adopted pro-Islam recommendations from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a prominent terrorism case a decade ago.  CAIR sent a letter on “Upcoming Islamic Holidays and Religious Accommodations” to Superintendent Judy Martinson back in March. Martinson allegedly enacted the letter as official district policy when she distributed it to school principals, who in turn circulated the letter to all teachers and staff, the FCDF claims.

To help Muslim students observe Ramadan, CAIR presses school officials to use Islamic greetings with Muslim students such as ‘Ramadan Mubarak!’ or ‘Ramadan Kareem.’ The letter also instructs teachers to monitor Muslim students’ Ramadan fasting and not to schedule any tests on the Islamic holidays Eid Al-Fitr and Eid.  “By urging teachers to bless Muslim students in Arabic, the district is running roughshod over the First Amendment’s mandate of government neutrality toward religion,” Daniel Piedra, FCDF’s executive director, said in a press release. “A school district would never order teachers to ‘welcome’ Catholic students during Easter with ‘He is risen, Alleluia!’ Singling out Muslim students for special treatment is blatantly unconstitutional.”  Martinson did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News. The network reported she put out a statement to members of the school district writing: “The Dieringer School District has not and would not violate the First Amendment by endorsing any religious observations. Be assured that we respect the personal beliefs of you and your family.”

Meanwhile, the Northshore School District, which is the 11th largest school district in the Evergreen State, recently issued guidelines to school officials to ensure Muslim students “have the right accommodations and support from teachers and their peers” during Ramadan.

Directives include:

• “A brief mention of Ramadan or a lesson on it may promote the feeling of inclusivity” because “any Muslim students may feel embarrassed to be specially accommodated”
• Create “comfortable” safe spaces for Muslim students with “books, magazines and other things to keep students busy”
• Plan in advance with Muslim students to allow them to “quietly slip away” for prayer to “avoid calling unwanted attention to them”
• When planning school activities and events, think about how it will impact practicing Muslim students” by asking “Will they feel left out?” and “Will they feel pressured to break their fast before sunset or Iftar (breaking of fast)?”
• “Privately offer information about nutritional adaptations” to Muslim students while they fast during the day

“The school district’s so-called Ramadan ‘accommodations’ run roughshod over the First Amendment and are a blatant insult to students of other faiths,” said Piedra. “Under the mantle of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion,’ school officials have exalted Islam as the state-sponsored religion. Teachers and parents are outraged, and they should be.”  The FCDF has warned both districts that legal proceedings may be initiated against both districts if they do not rescind their Ramadan policies.  CAIR’s national communications director Ibrahim Hooper is threatening to take “punitive legal action,” telling Fox News the pushback from FCDF was a “sign of the growing Islamophobia.”  “Pluralism in America means recognizing the wide variety of holidays celebrated by students of different faiths and backgrounds, including by saying ‘Merry Christmas,’ ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ ‘Happy Diwali,’ or ‘Ramadan Mubarak,’” Hooper said.  Ramadan is a month long celebration of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the observance began in the seventh century and commemorates Allah, the god of Islam.

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Communist are not Christian and do not tolerate the teachings of Christian.  They find it in conflict with how they wish to rule.  Communist North Korea is about to get hit with a massive new radio signal carrying the message of Christ’s love like never before.  “It’s an AM station, 250,000 watts, which will clearly cover North Korea,” said Ed Cannon, president of Far East Broadcasting Company, also known as FEBC.  For over 75 years, FEBC has been using radio signals to send the message of Jesus Christ around the world.  Cannon says this new “super station” will be erected close to the border of North and South Korea.  “We’ve secured a location on the western coast of South Korea just a few miles south of the Demilitarized Zone,” Cannon told CBN News. “It’s a perfect location because the signal goes across the ocean for a few miles and then goes right into North Korea.”  FEBC’s president says the radio signal will launch in a few months and will carry gospel programs produced from neighboring South Korea.  “The strategy of our organization is to use indigenous people in their native language to produce programming,” Cannon said. “We have a large segment of South Korean people broadcasting and we also have a number of escapees, refugees from North Korea, who’ve come to our organization.”

Cannon claims the signal will be “unblockable” by North Korea’s regime and will “reach far past the northern boundary of North Korea covering the entire country with the message of Jesus Christ.”  According to its website, FEBC’s broadcasts can be heard in 107 languages and 49 countries from 149 stations and transmitters.  “Our goal in North Korea is the same as it is in all of our other countries: to share the gospel through radio so that people will be inspired to follow Jesus Christ as their Savior,” Cannon told CBN News in an earlier interview.  North Korea is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians. Cannon says anyone caught listening to FEBC programs faces severe consequences.  “The {North Korean} refugees themselves say ‘pray for courage, pray for perseverance’ because the Christians are reaching out in ways to gather together in the Name of Christ, to pray together, to listen to the radio together, and they are willing to endure severe persecution,” Cannon told CBN News.

Each year, Open Doors USA releases their World Watch List, a ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution.  North Korea has taken the top spot for 18 years in a row.  “If Christians are discovered, not only are they deported to labor camps as political criminals or even killed on the spot, their families will share their fate as well,” Open Doors asserted on their website. “Christians do not even have the slightest space in society, on the contrary, they are publicly warned against.”

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In a statement, released via the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused Washington of committing an “unlawful and outrageous act” for taking possession of its second-largest bulk freighter. The vessel was originally seized in Indonesia last year for allegedly circumventing UN-imposed sanctions on shipping coal. Its handover to the US was announced last week.

The statement said the US had used UN Security Council sanctions resolutions as a reason to rob “our trade vessel” and equated it to a “violent infringement of the sovereignty of our country.” The statement accused Washington of attempting to use “maximum pressure” on North Korea in a bid to bring the country “to its knees.” It added that the seizure was a denial of the “underlying spirit” of last June’s DPRK-US Joint Statement on renewed bilateral relations made by US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

“The US should ponder over the consequences of its heinous act,” the official said.

The 17,000-ton Wise Honest cargo ship was detained by Indonesian authorities and handed over to the US Department of Justice last July. However, it was only last Thursday that the vessel began its journey to American Samoa. US officials believe the vessel was also being used to import heavy machinery to the North, allowing it to circumvent sanctions and improve its capabilities.

Tensions between the US and North Korea have been rising in recent months, after February’s second round of denuclearization talks in Vietnam between Trump and Kim failed to make any headway. Pyongyang has since restarted its program of testing rockets and short-range missiles which South Korean President Moon Jae-in said represented Pyongyang’s frustration because “it could not reach a deal in Hanoi.”
 

Vivid blue spinel with white carbonate in calc-silicate rock, Kimmirut area (Philippe Belley) and a cobalt-blue spinel gemstone, Kimmirut area. Credit: B.S. Wilson Researchers from the University of British Columbia published the first scientific study of cobalt-blue spinel in Canada, a mineral that produces fine gemstones that range from red and pink to violet and blue. When Philippe Belley came to the University of British Columbia to study how gemstones form, he didn’t think he would need to learn how to protect himself from polar bears. But when some of those precious stones are buried in the Canadian Arctic on Baffin Island, where the world’s largest land predator also roams, sometimes you roll the dice in the name of science. “We spotted four polar bears but luckily there were no close encounters,” said Belley, a recent PhD graduate of the department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences. “But we did learn a lot about how some unique gems are formed, which will change the way people look for them.” Belley and UBC mineralogist Lee Groat have published the first scientific study of cobalt-blue spinel in Canada, a mineral that is largely unknown to the general public but produces rare gems that are coveted by collectors and connoisseurs worldwide. Spinel comes in a variety of colours ranging from red and pink to violet and blue and the fine gemstones are prized for their intense natural colour and high transparency, both measures of gem quality. “There’s considerable interest in cobalt-blue spinel for gems and jewelry,” said Belley. “There are few stones that match its intense blue colour.” Even small stones with good transparency and fine cobalt-blue colour can sell for about ten times the price of a comparable sapphire. But supply is an issue and even production from the most significant source, Vietnam, is limited and sporadic. “Exploration for coloured gemstones is generally difficult due to challenging terrain or thick vegetation in major gem-producing areas like the Himalayas and Vietnam. Most new deposits are found by accident,” said Belley. “But there’s excellent rock exposure on Baffin Island, which facilitates exploration and the use of more advanced techniques like imaging using drones or satellites.” The researchers analyzed fourteen occurrences of spinel on Baffin Island, including two occurrences of cobalt-blue spinel, to better understand how it forms. “It’s a simple recipe but you need to combine the right proportions of chemical ingredients,” said Belley. On Baffin Island, spinel formed 1.8 billion years ago from sedimentary deposits of dolomitic marls and dolomite-bearing limestones. These sedimentary rocks metamorphosed at temperatures of about 800 C under immense pressure. Belley and Groat found that the magic ingredient that produces the distinct blue colour – cobalt – was only present in high-enough concentrations to produce gem quality stones in small, localized areas. “We found that cobalt was added at some point during sediment deposition or up to early metamorphism,” said Groat. “Previous work on other deposits suggested that cobalt was transported during high temperature metamorphism, so our results change the way in which people would explore for cobalt-blue spinel deposits.” According to Belley, Baffin Island spinel contains up to 500 parts-per-million of cobalt, which gives it a vivid blue colour that is comparable to the best sources worldwide. While accessing the area for scientific study was extremely challenging and involved long boat rides through thick fog in the Hudson Strait, stormy conditions, scouting for polar bears and a lengthy permit process to protect the ecologically sensitive environment, the geology of Baffin Island has been a veritable gem field of scientific discovery for the researchers. The team has also analyzed Beluga sapphires which were used in the Queen’s sapphire jubilee brooch and an occurrence of lapis lazuli. “Baffin Island is geologically similar to the Himalayas, where some of the world’s finest gems have been found,” said Belley. “Canada hasn’t been widely recognized as a source for fine, coloured gemstones but our research suggests that we have all the right ingredients.” The above story is based on materials provided by  the University of British Columbia.

“Potentially down the road, if equities slow down, and if the global economy slows down enough, you might see the Fed cut rates, that’s what’s breathing life right now into that gold market,” Streible told Kitco News.

Gold prices jumped on the news of China’s tariff retaliation against the US, retaking the $1,300 key level. The yellow metal, which has been trading well below its key psychological level for the last few weeks, reacted as a safe haven asset on Monday, gaining one percent and hitting $1,303.26, which is its highest in over a month. Gold steadied on Tuesday, trading at $1297.60 an ounce as of 9:12 GMT.

Gold’s turnaround came while other metals, including silver, palladium and platinum reacted with a downward move. Global stock markets and oil have also nosedived.

Experts say gold will continue to see a safe-haven demand, with prices overdue for a rebound. According to Orchid Research, gold prices have been under pressure in April and the tide is about to turn in May due to the dovish Federal Reserve and a lower US dollar.

Chief market analyst at Insignia Consultants, Chintan Karnani, also says that “uncertainty over the real impact on [the] US economy and Chinese economy is driving gold prices higher.” He told MarketWatch that the overall trend for gold is “bullish” as long as the precious metal trades over the $1,292-$1,294 zone.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

The photos give Westerners a rare-glimpse into the sprawling factories that keeps British and American spies up at night.  One shot shows young employees hunched over as they graft on a production line.  Another shows them glued to their smartphones as they queue for European-style cuisine in a lavish canteen.  One base at Songshan Lake near Dongguan, China, is known as the Huawei Xiliu Beipo Village – but is nicknamed the Ox Horn Campus in English.  One sector is based on French capital Paris – with other areas taking inspiration from Friboug, Switzerland, Heidelberg, Germany, Bruges, Belgium, and Oxford, England.  Each zone is linked by red trams imported from Switzerland.  Huawei’s President Ren Zhengfei said: “140 years ago, the world’s centre was in Pittsburgh because of steel; 70 years ago, the world’s centre was in Detroit because of cars; now where is the centre of the world? I don’t know, but it will be decentralised.  “Companies will move to places where the cost is low. High cost will destroy your competitiveness.”  It comes after Theresa May gave Huawei the green light to supply part of Britain’s 5G network.  The US has banned Huawei from government networks and urged the UK and other intelligence partners such as Australia to do the same.  Chinese firms are legally obliged to cooperate with Beijing’s state intelligence agencies.

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The cathedral’s 19th century spire collapsed into the church’s nave, irreparably piercing through the 850-year-old building, a landmark of Gothic architecture sitting in the heart of France’s capital.

It took several hours for hundreds of firefighters to quell the flames, which ignited during an evening mass on April 15 at the start of Holy Week, the busiest and most important period of the liturgical year. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, though Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz has told reporters it was “likely accidental.”

“Like all of our countrymen, I am sad tonight to see part of us burning,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on the day of the fire.

As millions mourned and wondered about what could be saved from the cathedral, “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir was the first television journalist allowed inside since the devastating fire, going inside the church with retired French Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, who has been chosen by Macron to lead the restoration of the storied church.

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The Reserve Bank of India may keep its focus firmly on growth, despite a moderate rise in CPI inflation in March, as the central bank draws comfort from falling core inflation in the month and soft full-year food inflation, which fell to a 27-year low. Most experts say inflation will likely remain benign while growth uncertainties surround Indian economy. A major factor keeping inflation in the economy benign is subdued food prices. According to recent government data, CPI food inflation during 2018-19 remained at 0.14 percent — which is the lowest since 1991. The low inflation, keeping well below target, has allowed the RBI to shift its focus to stimulate and support growth in the economy. “CPI inflation continues to remain comfortably below the RBI’s target of 4% and thus we continue to see room for another 25 bps of rate cut in 1HFY20. We assign a higher probability of a rate cut in August as uncertainties surrounding the outcome of the election, monsoon and budget would have partly abated by then,” said a report by Kotak Economic Research. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) recently cut its GDP growth estimate for fiscal 2019 by 20 bps to 7 per cent, indicating a slowdown from 7.2 per cent in fiscal 2018. RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee in its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2019-20 cut repo rate by 25 bps to 6 per cent — the lowest repo rate in about nine years since 2010, while keeping the policy stance unchanged at ‘neutral’. Retail inflation picked up marginally in March to 2.86 percent compared with 2.57 per cent in February. The rise in CPI inflation was primarily due to an expected reversal in food inflation, which went up by 0.3 per cent said Kotak report. However, industrial output growth in February was flat at 0.1 per cent in February on account of slowdown in the manufacturing sector, show CSO data. Core inflation softened to 5.1 per cent in March compared to 5.4 per cent in February. “We expect the core inflation trajectory to gradually moderate to 4.2% in FY2020 on the back of muted growth,” said Kotak report. Other experts also expect inflation to remain benign and well under target, which will give room to Monetary Policy Committee to cut rates further. “Inflation is unlikely to pick up pace in FY20. Historical trends suggest WPI food inflation is unlikely to translate into CPI food inflation,” said SBI’s Group Chief Economic Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh in a Twitter post. On the other hand, even those who expect inflation to accelerate don’t consider it a big threat. Inflation is likely to pick up it is expected to remain below RBI’s target level, said CARE Ratings. CARE Ratings expects 25-50 bps rate cut during the year, the timing of which will be data driven. A benign inflation in future is also expected by Chief Economist and Executive Director of Anand Rathi Sujan Hajra. Even though he too expects a further rate cut, it may not happen in the next policy review, according to him. “Inflation, despite hardening, remains extremely benign as compared to the longer term trend. So we expect RBI to continue with neutral rate and accommodative liquidity stance. We expect 25-50 bps rate cut in 2019. However, after two successive cuts, RBI may pause in the next policy,” he said. Get live Stock Prices from BSE and NSE and latest NAV, portfolio of Mutual Funds , calculate your tax by Income Tax Calculator , know market’s Top Gainers , Top Losers & Best Equity Funds . Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter .