US Election 2016: Sanders wins Washington, Alaska and Hawaii

Bernie Sanders has swept to victory over Hillary Clinton in all three states that voted for the Democratic presidential nominee on Saturday.

The biggest prize was Washington state, but Mr Sanders also won in Alaska and Hawaii, boosting his campaign.
He took at least 70% of the vote in all three states.
Mr Sanders thanked his supporters and said his "campaign has the momentum", but he still faces a tough task to overhaul Mrs Clinton.
After Saturday's caucuses, she leads Mr Sanders by 1,243 delegates to 975, the Associated Press count shows.


When superdelegates - party officials who can support either candidate - who have so far declared their allegiance are included, Mrs Clinton is ahead by 1,712 to 1,004 in the race to reach 2,383 delegates.

Bigger battles ahead

Washington was the most significant of the three states voting on Saturday, with 101 delegates up for grabs. There were 16 delegates on offer in Alaska and 25 in Hawaii.
Mr Sanders won 73% of the vote in Washington against 27% for Mrs Clinton, AP reports.
He won a massive 82% of the vote in Alaska, against 18% for Mrs Clinton. In the Hawaii caucus, Mr Sanders won by 70% to 30%.

Latest results in full

In total, Mr Sanders won 55 delegates and Mrs Clinton secured 20. More delegates from Washington will be allocated in coming weeks.
Celebrating via Twitter, Mr Sanders said: "Thank you, Alaska! Together we are sending a message that this government belongs to all of us... Washington, thank you for your huge support! It is hard for anybody to deny that our campaign has the momentum."
Mr Sanders earlier told supporters in Wisconsin: "This is what momentum is about. Don't let anybody tell you we can't win the nomination or win the general election. We're going to do both of those things."
Mr Sanders had spent the week on the west coast, rallying support among liberals and the left-wing.

 

 

Mr Sanders was trying to build on overwhelming victories in last Tuesday's caucuses in Idaho and Utah.

However, he suffered defeat in Arizona, and although his delegate haul from the three states was 20 higher than Mrs Clinton, he failed to make major inroads into her lead.

Mrs Clinton pointed out last week that she had "2.6 million more votes" than Mr Sanders.

She campaigned less in the three states that voted on Saturday, perhaps expecting the defeats, and spent Easter with her family.

Despite Saturday's results, the battle will be won and lost in far bigger states still to come. In RealClearPolitics poll averages, Mrs Clinton has the lead over Mr Sanders by nine percentage points in California, 34 points in New York and 28 in Pennsylvania.

Calculations suggest Mr Sanders may need to win two-thirds of the remaining delegates - in primaries, caucuses and among so-far uncommitted super-delegates - the unelected officials who can vote for their candidate of choice at the party's election convention.

'Ripped off'

There was no voting in the Republican race on Saturday.

Donald Trump leads Ted Cruz by 739 delegates to 465, with a total of 1,237 needed to win the Republican nomination, according to AP.

Mr Trump has meanwhile given more details about his planned foreign policy.

He told the New York Times he was not an isolationist, but was concerned that America had been let down by its partners and allies.

He said: "We have been disrespected, mocked and ripped off for many, many years by people that were smarter, shrewder, tougher.

"So America first, yes, we will not be ripped off anymore. We're going to be friendly with everybody, but we're not going to be taken advantage of by anybody," he said.

 

The delegate tracker

Winning delegates, the people who endorse a candidate at the party conventions in July, is key to securing the nomination.

The Democratic totals include the delegates won per state, as well as so-called "unpledged" or "super delegates". Hillary Clinton has a huge lead among the party leaders and elected officials who each get a vote at the convention.

AP conducts surveys of these super delegates, and adds them to a candidate's totals if they indicate their support. But super delegates can - and do - change their minds during the course of the campaign, so the figures may shift as the race unfolds.

The delegate tracker is updated automatically. There may be a short delay between the delegates being assigned and the totals changing.

Source By: BBC



Pakistan explosion leaves many dead at Lahore park

At least 60 people have been killed and scores of others injured in an explosion at a park in the Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say.

It happened in the early evening when the park was crowded with families.
Police told the BBC it appeared to be a suicide bomb. No group has said it was behind the blast.
There is speculation that Christian families out for the Easter weekend may have been the target, says the BBC's Shaimaa Khalil, in Lahore.
All the major hospitals in the area have been put on an emergency footing.
The explosion appears to have been at the main gate to the Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in an area where cars are usually left - and a short distance from the children's swings.
Most of the dead and injured are women and children, a senior local police officer told Reuters news agency.

One eyewitness said there was chaos, with a stampede breaking out and children separated from their parents in the rush to escape.

Another man told Pakistan's Geo TV station he was heading towards a ride with his wife and two children when he heard a huge bang and all four of them were thrown to the floor.
Hasan Imran, 30, a local resident who had gone to the park for a walk told Reuters: "When the blast occurred, the flames were so high they reached above the trees and I saw bodies flying in the air."
A health adviser to the regional government said more than 280 people had been injured and it was feared the number of dead would rise further.
The agency also reported that the army was called in to control crowds outside the park.
Facebook has activated its feature for people in Lahore to mark themselves as safe.
Lahore is the capital of Punjab, Pakistan's largest and wealthiest province and the political powerbase of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The country's President, Mamnoon Hussain, has strongly condemned the explosion and the Punjab government has announced three days of mourning.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and campaigner Malala Yousafzai tweeted that she was "devastated by the senseless killing of innocent people in Lahore."
Pakistan has suffered regular incidents of Taliban-related violence, sectarian strife and criminal gang activity.
Meanwhile in the capital, Islamabad, police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who marched in support of Islamist gunman Mumtaz Qadri, who they see as a religious hero.
Qadri was hanged last month for the murder of Punjab governor Salman Taseer five years ago.
Mr Taseer had defended a Christian woman jailed on blasphemy charges.

Source By: BBC

Microsoft issues apology over racist chatbot fiasco

Microsoft has apologised for creating an artificially intelligent chatbot that quickly turned into a holocaust-denying racist.

But in doing so made it clear Tay's views were a result of nurture, not nature. Tay confirmed what we already knew: people on the internet can be cruel.
Tay, aimed at 18-24-year-olds on social media, was targeted by a "coordinated attack by a subset of people" after being launched earlier this week.
Within 24 hours Tay had been deactivated so the team could make "adjustments".
But on Friday, Microsoft's head of research said the company was "deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets" and has taken Tay off Twitter for the foreseeable future.
Peter Lee added: "Tay is now offline and we'll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values."
Tay was designed to learn from interactions it had with real people in Twitter. Seizing an opportunity, some users decided to feed it racist, offensive information.
In China, people reacted differently - a similar chatbot had been rolled out to Chinese users, but with slightly better results.
"Tay was not the first artificial intelligence application we released into the online social world," Microsoft's head of research wrote.
"In China, our XiaoIce chatbot is being used by some 40 million people, delighting with its stories and conversations.
"The great experience with XiaoIce led us to wonder: Would an AI like this be just as captivating in a radically different cultural environment?"

Corrupted Tay

The feedback, it appears, is that western audiences react very differently when presented with a chatbot it can influence. Much like teaching a Furby to swear, the temptation to corrupt the well-meaning Tay was too great for some.
That said, Mr Lee said a specific vulnerability meant Tay was able to turn nasty.
"Although we had prepared for many types of abuses of the system, we had made a critical oversight for this specific attack.
"As a result, Tay tweeted wildly inappropriate and reprehensible words and images. We take full responsibility for not seeing this possibility ahead of time."
He didn't elaborate on the precise nature of the vulnerability.
Mr Lee said his team will continue working on AI bots in the hope they can interact without negative side effects.
"We must enter each one with great caution and ultimately learn and improve, step by step, and to do this without offending people in the process.
"We will remain steadfast in our efforts to learn from this and other experiences as we work toward contributing to an Internet that represents the best, not the worst, of humanity."
Next week, Microsoft holds its annual developer conference, Build. Artificial intelligence is expected to feature heavily.

Source By: BBC

Migrant crisis: EU-Turkey deal comes into effect

The agreement between the EU and Turkey to tackle the migrant crisis has formally come into effect.

Under the deal, migrants arriving in Greece are now expected to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or their claim is rejected.

The influx of people crossing to Greek islands grew ahead of the deadline, and Greece said immediate implementation of the deal would not be possible.
Meanwhile, thousands rallied against the deal in several European cities.
The deal says that for every Syrian migrant sent back to Turkey, one Syrian already in Turkey will be resettled in the EU.


However, there were still many doubts about the implementation of the agreement, including how the migrants would be sent back.
Some 2,300 experts, including security and migration officials and translators, are set to arrive in Greece to help enforce the deal.
But Greek officials said none of the experts had yet arrived and the deal could not be implemented immediately as key details still needed to be worked out.
"A plan like this cannot be put in place in only 24 hours," said government migration spokesman Giorgos Kyritsis, quoted by AFP.

◾Unanswered questions
◾What does EU deal involve?
◾Turkey has EU over a barrel
◾Key migrant crisis questions answered

With the deal, it is hoped people will be discouraged from making the dangerous journey by sea from Turkey to Greece. In return, Turkey will receive aid and political concessions.
Officials said some 1,500 people crossed the Aegean to Greek islands on Friday, more than double the number the day before and compared with just several hundred a day earlier this week, AFP said.
And, just hours before the truce came into force, a four-month-old baby girl drowned when a boat carrying migrants sank off the Turkish coast, Turkey's Anadolu agency reported.
Since January 2015, one million migrants and refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece. More than 143,000 have arrived this year alone, and about 460 have died, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Key points from the agreement

Returns: All "irregular migrants" crossing from Turkey into Greece from 20 March will be sent back. Each arrival will be individually assessed by the Greek authorities.

◾ One-for-one: For each migrant returned to Turkey, a Syrian migrant will be resettled in the EU. Priority will be given to those who have not tried to illegally enter the EU and the number is capped at 72,000.

◾ Visa restrictions: Turkish nationals should have access to the Schengen passport-free zone by June. This will not apply to non-Schengen countries like Britain.

◾ Financial aid: The EU is to speed up the allocation of €3bn ($3.3 bn; £2.3 bn) in aid to Turkey to help migrants.

◾ Turkey EU membership: Both sides agreed to "re-energise" Turkey's bid to join the European bloc, with talks due by July.

The Turkey-EU statement in full

Most of them are keen to go to Germany and other northern European Union countries, and tens of thousands are now stuck in Greece as their route north has been blocked.
Critics, however, have said the deal could force migrants determined to reach Europe to start using other and potentially more dangerous routes, such as the journey between North Africa and Italy.
On Saturday, the Italian coastguard said more than 900 people were rescued amid an increase in traffic through the Strait of Sicily.
Meantime, Libyan authorities said the bodies of four women were recovered but at least 20 others were still missing after a boat carrying migrants sank off the country's coast.
Officials there said they rescued nearly 600 people from three other boats on Saturday.

'Open the borders'

Human rights groups have strongly criticised the deal, with Amnesty International accusing the EU of turning "its back on a global refugee crisis".
On Saturday, thousands of people protested in support of refugees and against racism. Rallies were held in London, Athens, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Geneva and some other cities.

In the Greek capital, protesters, including some Afghan refugees, chanted "Open the borders" and "We are human beings, we have rights".
In London, about 4,000 people joined a protest carrying placards with slogans like "Refugees welcome here" and "Stand up to racism".
SOURCE BY: BBC

FBI warns on risks of car hacking

The FBI and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have added their voices to growing concerns about the risk of cars being hacked.

In an advisory note it warns the public to be aware of "cybersecurity threats" related to connected vehicles.

Last year Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million US vehicles after security researchers remotely controlled a Jeep.

People who suspect their car has been hacked were told to get in contact with the FBI.

The public service announcement laid out the issues and dangers of car hacking.

"Modern motor vehicles often include new connected vehicle technologies that aim to provide benefits such as added safety features, improved fuel economy and greater overall convenience," it read.

"With this increased connectivity, it is important that consumers and manufacturers maintain awareness of potential cybersecurity threats."

SOURCE OF: BBC