Jose Vinals, the chief of the organization’s financial stability division, said there are several contributing factors, including a huge “loss of market confidence” that would drag down the markets. The IMF report, addressing global financial stability, said “financial and economic stagnation” looms unless governments find a way to avoid the “pernicious feedback loop of fragile confidence, weaker growth, low inflation and rising debt burdens.”

The Telegraph called it the “bluntest warning to date on the costs of policy inaction,” and outlined how investors can “lose faith in policymakers’ ability to revive the global economy.” Vinals predicted the resulting slowdown could knock 4 percent from the world’s output, “relative to current expectations over the next five years,” and he noted a $1.3 trillion corporate debt in China poses “potentially serious challenges to financial stability if defaults pushed banks over the edge.”

Under the scenario he sees possible, Vinals said stocks in the UK, US, Eurozone and China all would lose “a fifth of their value over two years.”

The report by Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic was released as the United Nations kicked off a week-long meeting on such weapons in Geneva. The report calls for humans to remain in control over all weapons systems at a time of rapid technological advances. It says that requiring humans to remain in control of critical functions during combat, including the selection of targets, saves lives and ensures that fighters comply with international law.

"Machines have long served as instruments of war, but historically humans have directed how they are used," said Bonnie Docherty, senior arms division researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. "Now there is a real threat that humans would relinquish their control and delegate life-and-death decisions to machines." Some have argued in favor of robots on the battlefield, saying their use could save lives.

But last year, more than 1,000 technology and robotics experts — including scientist Stephen Hawking, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak — warned that such weapons could be developed within years, not decades. The UN meeting of experts on the issue, chaired by Germany, continues talks that took place in April 2015 and May 2014.

The Daily Mail has the story (3/29/16): “Former [British] science chief: ‘MMR fears coming true’”. “A former Government medical officer responsible for deciding whether medicines are safe has accused the Government of ‘utterly inexplicable complacency’ over the MMR triple vaccine for children.” “Dr Peter Fletcher, who was Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of Health, said if it is proven that the jab causes autism, ‘the refusal by governments to evaluate the risks properly will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history’.”

“He added that after agreeing to be an expert witness on drug-safety trials for parents’ lawyers, he had received and studied thousands of documents relating to the case which he believed the public had a right to see.”

“He said he has seen a ‘steady accumulation of evidence’ from scientists worldwide that the [MMR] measles, mumps and rubella jab is causing brain damage in certain children.” “But he added: ‘There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves’.”

The new device is being built by Cellebrite, the Israeli company that is thought to have helped the FBI crack the iPhone 5c belonging to San Bernadino terrorist Syed Farook. Mobile telephones and other personal electronic devices have drastically increased the instances of distracted driving, leading to accidents and deaths.

In fact, according to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, the dispatcher involved in the Bad Aibling rail accident which killed 11 people in Germany was apparently distracted by a game on a smartphone. The idea was proposed by a draft legislation in New York, which would require drivers to submit their phones for testing, if pulled up by authorities.

"Reports indicate that 67 per cent of drivers admit to continued use of their cell phones while driving despite knowledge of the inherent danger to themselves and others on the road," the draft law said.

The study is the first broad look at how fast food may expose the public to certain chemicals, called phthalates, that are used to make plastics more flexible and durable. The chemicals, which don’t occur in nature, are common in cosmetics, soap, food packaging, flooring, window blinds, and other consumer products. The Centers for Disease Control says "phthalate exposure is widespread in the US population."

Though the health consequences of encountering these substances aren’t fully known, scientists have increasingly focused on their effects on health and development, particularly for pregnant women and children. Research in rats has shown that they can disrupt the male reproductive system, and there’s evidence for similar effects in humans. The latest research suggests that fast food is a significant source of the chemicals, which may leach into food from machinery used in processing or packaging, or from gloves worn by workers.

Ami Zota, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health said that for people interested in reducing their exposure, “common-sense approaches will take you a long way. Eat organic when you can. If you can’t, still try to eat fresh vegetables,” she said. "Try to eat low on the food chain."

In the study carried out by Australia's Queensland University (QUT), it compared the effects of sugar to those of cocaine and likened the symptoms of coming off it to going 'cold turkey'. Neuroscientist Professor Selena Bartlett from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation said the study, which has just been published by international research journal PLOS ONE, shows drugs used to treat nicotine addiction could be used to treat sugar addiction in animals.

“The latest World Health Organisation figures tell us 1.9 billion people worldwide are overweight, with 600 million considered obese,” she said. “Excess sugar consumption has been proven to contribute directly to weight gain. It has also been shown to repeatedly elevate dopamine levels which control the brain's reward and pleasure centres in a way that is similar to many drugs of abuse including tobacco, cocaine and morphine.”

“I never thought that I would be accepted into a human school,” the robot said upon hearing of his successful enrollment at Hisashi High School in Waseda, Fukushima Prefecture. He also promised to “try my best,” TASS reported.

Pepper comes to the school with an impressive array of language skills, speaking both Japanese and English. He will mostly take part in English classes, though the school has told Pepper than he can also visit other classes and activities. Teachers believe learning alongside Pepper will be a positive experience for students, encouraging their desire to learn new information.

"You have people who feel that if a school library buys a copy of the Bible, it's a violation of church and state," says James LaRue, who directs the Office for Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association, which released its annual 10 top snapshot of "challenged" books on Monday, part of the association's "State of Libraries Report" for 2016.

"And sometimes there's a retaliatory action, where a religious group has objected to a book and a parent might respond by objecting to the Bible." LaRue emphasized that the library association does not oppose having Bibles in public schools. Guidelines for the Office for Intellectual Freedom note that the Bible "does not violate the separation of church and state as long as the library does not endorse or promote the views included in the Bible."

The ALA also favors including a wide range of religious materials, from the Quran to the Bhagavad Gita to the Book of Mormon. LaRue added that the association does hear of complaints about the Quran, but fewer than for the Bible.

Taking a page straight out of the 1980’s Afghanistan playbook, these strategic weapons were provided to extremist groups in an effort to assist in toppling the Assad government. The truth was laid bare by Saudi Foreign Minister Abdel al-Jubeir, in an interview with German publication Der Speigel, when he said, “We believe that introducing surface-to-air missiles in Syria is going to change the balance of power on the ground … just like surface-to-air missiles in Afghanistan were able to change the balance of power there.”

In 2005, RAND Corp commissioned a study which concluded that an attack on a civilian airliner would cause a global freeze on air travel that would amount to over $15 billion in losses. Now, over a decade later the numbers would be substantially higher. With al-Qaeda’s affiliates in Syria now having advanced US surface-to-air missiles, it presents a strategic threat that former CIA director David Petraeus labeled, “our worst nightmare.”

Yu Hongding, a director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China is caught in two concurrent "deflationary spirals" that are feeding on the other. A major devaluation and a blast of well-targeted fiscal stimulus will be needed to break out of the trap.

"They must stop intervening on the exchange market. China needs to devalue by 15 percent. They are creating conditions for speculators," he told the Daily Telegraph, speaking at the Ambrosetti forum of global policymakers on Lake Como.

Prof Yu, a former rate-setter for the central bank (PBOC) and currently a member of the national planning committee, said the government is making a serious mistake in trying to defend the yuan by burning through foreign exchange reserves, already down to $3.2 trillion from $4 trillion in mid-2014.

According to the ruling: “So long as the facts known to the officer establish reasonable suspicion to justify an investigatory stop, the stop is lawful even if the officer falsely cites as the basis for the stop a ground that is not supported by reasonable suspicion.” The court goes on to justify their rights violating and Stasi-esque ruling by claiming it’s okay as long as the officer truly believes the subject of his lies has criminal intent.

Unfunded liabilities for pensions have been a problem for a while now, but as investors continue to face fleeting returns, many states and cities are facing the music… and when it stops, there won’t be enough money to go around. Someone will lose their savings, their standard of living, their retirement and maybe their future. Others will be taxed to death to clean up the mess of the many places where the system is cracked, fissured and falling apart.

According to FT: “The US public pension system has developed a $3.4 trillion funding hole that will pile pressure on cities and states to cut spending or raise taxes to avoid Detroit-style bankruptcies. The collective funding shortfall of US public pension funds is three times larger than official figures showed, and is getting bigger.”

Devin Nunes, a US Republican congressman, said: “It has been clear for years that many cities and states are critically underfunding their pension programmes and hiding the fiscal holes with accounting tricks.” Mr Nunes added: “When these pension funds go insolvent, they will create problems so disastrous that the fund officials assume the federal government will have to bail them out.”

According to the authorities, the settlement is related to the bank’s “conduct in packaging, securitization, marketing and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007. This resolution holds Goldman Sachs accountable for its serious misconduct in falsely assuring investors that securities it sold were backed by sound mortgages, when it knew that they were full of mortgages that were likely to fail,” said Acting Associate Attorney Stuart Delery.

He added that the settlement includes a $1.8 billion commitment to help repair the damage to homeowners and communities that Goldman acknowledges resulted from its conduct. The fine also includes a $2.385 billion civil penalty and $875 million in cash payments.

Europe is at “a critical crossroads” and needs to decide whether to embrace “closer political, fiscal and social integration” or pursue fragmentation and “narrow national interest”, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and his Portuguese counterpart António Costa said in a joint statement.

Both Portugal and Greece have received bail-outs from the European Union following the crash of 2008. Portugal exited its €78 billion bail-out programme in May 2014, while Greece is struggling to close a crucial review of its third bail-out in five years.

“We, as prime ministers of two countries with a similar policy experience in the context of their respective adjustment programmes, share the conviction that austerity-only policies are wrong and insufficient to overcome the existing challenges,” said Mr Tsipras and Mr Costa. They added: “Europe has to change course.”