Nigerian president to seek re-election in 2019

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LAGOS, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will seek re-election in 2019, a top aide said on Friday.

Speaking in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, at a rally, Boss Mustapha, secretary to the Government of the Federation, said Buhari has transformed and changed the image of leadership of the country both locally and internationally.

Mustapha, who became the presidency's top official to speak on Buhari and 2019, told the rally that other aspirants showing interest in the job have nothing to offer.

Buhari has not officially announced his interest in contesting again, but several groups have been urging him to run.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, in a special press statement last month, advised Buhari not to run.

Obasanjo has since been galvanizing the Coalition of Nigeria Movement, which is expected to transform into a party before the elections.

Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu, after a meeting with Buhari on Jan. 3, said he was sure Buhari would run.

Nigeria is scheduled to hold general elections in February 2019.

India will launch its second lunar mission in April

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NEW DELHI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- India will launch its second lunar mission in April this year, the country's Space Minister Jitendra Singh said Friday.

"India is going to launch Chandrayaan-2 in April. It is under Chandrayaan-1 mission that the ISRO (Indian Space Reaserch Organisation) spotted water on the moon. Chandrayaan-2 is a further extension of the project and it is as good as landing a man on the moon," Singh told the media.

Under Chandrayaan-2, state-owned ISRO will try to land a rover on the moon's south pole.

India successfully launched its first mission, Chandrayaan-1, to the moon in 2008. It was launched on Oct. 22, 2008, and included a probe, impactor and orbiter. Its moon impact probe crash-landed on the lunar surface on Nov. 14, 2008.

The first lunar mission in India costed about 60 million U.S. dollars.

U.S. oil exports could be driven by OPEC's balancing act

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U.S. oil is still finding its way to the open market even as the discount for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for the price of oil, shrinks. File photo by William S. Stevens/U.S. Navy/UPI 

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Feb. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. shale oil barrels that find their way on the international market could have the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to thank, analysis suggests.

The United States is now rivaling Saudi Arabia, and could soon dethrone Russia, in terms of production with output at an average of 10 million barrels per day. A ban on oil exports from the United States ended in 2015, just as the shale oil boom was hitting its stride and, with production accelerating, more U.S. barrels are on the open market.

For the week ending Feb. 9, total U.S. crude oil exports averaged 1.3 million barrels per day. The four-week moving average for exports is more than double the rate from the same period last year, federal data show.

U.S. oil exports are supported in part by the spread, or difference, between the price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark. As of early Friday morning, Brent was about $3 per barrel more than WTI, meaning its cheaper to buy for foreign clients with an appetite for the lighter U.S. type of oil. That spread was closer to $6 per barrel during the last four months of 2017, but that hasn't yet put a damper on the appetite for U.S. crude.

Sandy Fielden, the director for oil and products research at Morningstar, said localized differences in the price of oil matters for exporters and the market remains ripe for U.S. exports so long as demand holds up.

"In this market battle, shale exporters are supported by the OPEC/non-OPEC producer agreement to cut production, which hands them market share while the cartel protects higher prices," he said in an emailed market report.

OPEC a few years ago was defending a market share with robust production, which tilted the market heavily toward the supply side and left the price of crude oil around $30 per barrel.

OPEC, with support from non-member state producers like Russia, is now in the second year of an effort to balance an oversupplied market with production cuts. The balancing act helped set a floor under the price of crude oil at around $50 per barrel, which is enough to stimulate more U.S. shale oil production, a sector that's been more resilient to historically low crude oil prices than expected.

Recent rhetoric on extended and expanded support for OPEC's market stance led some analysts to speculate a supply deficit was the new target, along with even higher crude oil prices.

Global demand expectations, fueled in part by optimism over the acceleration in the world's economy, helped push crude oil prices to multi-year records last month. Separate analysis emailed from UBS found demand, meanwhile, could be even more robust than initially projected.

"Future energy demand growth will be derived from emerging markets, where some have laid out ambitious economic development plans," the report read. "As such, global energy demand growth will shift further from developed to emerging economies, where gross domestic product and population growth outpaces the developed world."

Memory problems predict Alzheimer's onset

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Researchers at McGill University in Canada found those suffering from anosognosia, a form of memory lapse that can make people unaware of their health condition, had impaired brain metabolic function and higher rates of amyloid deposition. Photo by sfam_photo/Shutterstock

Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Individuals who are not aware of their own memory problems are nearly three times more likely to develop some form of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, within two years, according to research at McGill University in Montreal.

In a study published Thursday in the journal Neurology, a team from McGill's Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory studied individuals who experience memory lapses. The study was led by Dr. Pedro Rosa-Neto, co-senior author of the study and clinician scientist and director of the McGill Center for Studies in Aging.

"This study could provide clinicians with insights regarding clinical progression to dementia," Rosa-Neto said in a press release.

Anosognosia, frequently referred to as a lack of insight, is a common symptom of certain mental illnesses -- including 50 percent of people with schizophrenia and 40 percent of people with bipolar disorder -- according to the Treatment Advocacy Center. The condition is also often linked to Alzheimer's disease, researchers say.

Patients, the Center said, appear to be rational in refusing treatment and totally unaware of their condition, regardless of how obvious it is to people around them.

Joseph Therriault, a master's student in McGill's Integrated Program in Neuroscience and lead author of the paper, studied data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a global research effort in which patients complete a variety of imaging and clinical assessments.

He studied 450 patients with mild memory deficits but who were still able to take care of themselves. Close relatives of the participants were also asked to fill out similar surveys.

If a patient reported no cognitive problems but the family member reported significant difficulties, the person was determined to have poor awareness of illness. Then researchers compared the poor awareness group to the ones with no awareness problems.

They found those suffering from anosognosia had impaired brain metabolic function and higher rates of amyloid deposition. This protein builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients.

"This highlights the importance of assessing awareness of cognitive decline in the clinical evaluation and management of individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment," researchers wrote in the paper.

In a followup study two years later, patients unaware of their memory problems were found to be more likely to have developed dementia regardless of genetic risk, age, gender and education. The researchers say they found this increased progression to dementia was similar to increased brain metabolic dysfunction in regions vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease.

"This has practical applications for clinicians: people with mild memory complaints should have an assessment that takes into account information gathered from reliable informants, such as family members or close friends," said Dr. Serge Gauthier, co-senior author of the paper and professor of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Psychiatry and Medicine at McGill.

University scientists plan to further explore how awareness of illness changes across the full spectrum of Alzheimer's disease.

U.S. oil supply growth pressures oil prices

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Crude oil prices reverse course as traders shift their focus toward steady gains in U.S. crude oil production. File photo by Brian Kersey/UPI 

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Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices declined Thursday as steady gains in U.S. crude oil production offset Saudi comments during the previous session on cuts.

Oil producers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries stood firm to their commitment to balance an oversupplied market with coordinated production cuts during meetings this week in Riyadh. Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih fueled a rally Wednesday when he said producers were firmly committed to a balanced market.

"In other words, OPEC wants to get us into a daily supply deficit and cause a spike in prices," Phil Flynn, the senior market analyst for the PRICE Futures Group in Chicago, said in market commentary emailed to UPI.

The OPEC effort has set a floor under the price of crude oil at around $50 per barrel, which is enough to stimulate more U.S. shale oil production, a sector that's been more resilient to historically low crude oil prices than expected.

Federal data show total U.S. crude oil production increased 20,000 barrels per day last week to 10.3 million barrels per day. That's more than Saudi Arabia and a level that's offsetting OPEC's efforts to some degree.

Wednesday's rally was fueled further by data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing crude oil inventories gained less than analysts had expected. Geoffrey Craig, the oil futures editor for Platts, said in an emailed market report that inventories are still "bloated' when compared to pre-2015 levels.

The price for Brent crude oil was down 1.1 percent as of 9:22 a.m. EST to $63.66 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for the price of oil, was down 0.73 percent to $60.16 per barrel.

Oil prices topped $70 per barrel in January, but have seen spillover pressure from the slump in the equities market, a downturn driven by inflationary fears.

"Like stocks, the correction in oil was overdue, healthy and does not change the bullish fundamental outlook for this market," Flynn added.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Labor Department reported first-time claims for unemployment for the week ending Feb. 10 increased 7,000 from last week. The less-volatile four-week moving average increased by 3,500.

World's first floating wind farm put to the test

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Norwegian energy company Statoil said its floating wind farm off the Scottish coast holds promise for future deepwater installations. Photo courtesy of Statoil

Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Put to the test with high winds and strong seas, Norway's Statoil said a floating wind farm in Scottish waters shows promise for deepwater installations.

During its first three months in service, the company's Hywind Scotland floating wind farm, the first of its kind, was put to the test and performed better than expected. Hurricane Ophelia in October pummeled the wind farm with 80 mile-per-hour winds and 100 mph winds were recorded two months later during Storm Caroline, which added to the test for the wind farm with 26 foot waves.

Statoil said Hywind closes down during the worst of the weather, but can automatically come back on stream when conditions improve. Special motion control systems, meanwhile, turn the turbine blades to counter potential wind stress.

The company said the design showed it could handle harsh weather conditions, but its actual performance was impressive. Operating at about 65 percent of total design capacity, Statoil said Hywind performed better than its anchored counterparts.

"Knowing that up to 80 percent of the offshore wind resources globally are in deep waters where traditional bottom fixed installations are not suitable, we see great potential for floating offshore wind, in Asia, on the west coast of North America and in Europe," Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president for New Energy Solutions in Statoil, said in a statement.

Statoil said it's planning a battery system that will "learn" to store electricity to compensate for calm conditions at Hywind.

With renewable resources like solar and wind deemed variable because of the nature of their power origins, storage may be a critical issue for future deployments.

For Statoil, the battery component for wind energy adds support to its efforts to complement its oil and gas portfolio with "profitable renewable energy."

Hywind has a design capacity of 30 megawatts. It's located about 15 miles off the Scottish coast and can produce enough energy to service 20,000 average households.

Ramaphosa elected as South Africa's new president

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South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa (C) will be nominated Thursday to succeed Jacob Zuma as president of South Africa. Zuma resigned Wednesday. File Photo by Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as South Africa's new president Thursday after the departure of embattled leader Jacob Zuma.

The announcement of Ramaphosa, the only candidate nominated in South African Parliament Thursday, was met with singing in the National Assembly.

In December, Ramaphosa was elected leader of the African National Congress. Zuma resigned Wednesday following pressure from the ANC, which said if Zuma didn't resign by the end of the day, proceedings would begin to force him out.

Ramaphosa, 65, drew international acclaim for steering talks that ended apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation, and produced South Africa's first democratic constitution. He has served as country's deputy president since 2014.

The new leader, one of South Africa's richest businessmen, was also chairman of the committee that prepared former President Nelson Mandelafor release from prison in 1990.

As deputy president, Ramaphosa will assume the role of acting president when Zuma steps down. He said his priority is to revive the country's economy, which will be a tough task with South African unemployment at about 30 percent, and nearly 40 percent for young people.

Addressing government corruption is a step that could improve investor confidence and spark more jobs.

Zuma, South Africa's president since 2009, faces nearly 800 corruption allegations stemming from an arms deal from the 1990s. In 2016, he was ordered by South Africa's top court to repay part of $15 million in public funds it said he misappropriated to upgrade his private home.

On Wednesday, eight members of the powerful and wealthy Gupta family were arrested and accused of fraud and money laundering. The Guptas have been accused of using their friendship with Zuma to gain political influence.

Germany's Savchenko, Massot win gold in mixed pairs figure skating

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Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany collapse to the ice after a nearly flawless performance in the Pairs Figure Skating Free Skating Program during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics Thursday at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, South Korea. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI 

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Feb. 15 (UPI) -- German figure skaters Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot claimed the mixed pairs event title Thursday at the Pyeongchang Olympics with a personal best 235.90 points.

Savchenko and Massot won the gold medal in front of more than 5,000 spectators in the sold-out Gangneung Ice Arena. They did so with a flawless routine, featuring a combination of airy triple Salchow plus two double toeloop jumps.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong won China's second silver medal, with 235.47 points after free skating, 0.43 points away from the top of the podium.

The silver came after Liu Jiayu snatched the silver medal of the women's snowboard halfpipe for China on Tuesday and became the first Chinese snowboard Olympic medalist.

Savchenko and Massot finish in fourth place in the short program.

Skating to Turandot by Giacomo Puccini, Sui/Han received a long-lasting applause and cheers after an infectious program.

However, Han under-rotated a double toeloop jump in the same combination jumps of the German duo's, and then Sui landed unsteady after a side-by-side triple salchow jump at the beginning of the routine, which cost them the championship in the end.

Team gold medallists Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford of Canada took the bronze medal home with 230.15 points. The only scar of the powerful routine in Adele's Hometown Glory came when Duhamel stumbled on a triple Lutz jump and had her hand touch the ice.

Another Chinese combination, Yu Xiaoyu/Zhang Hao, who have paired up for less than two years, finished 8th with 204.10 points. The first-time Olympian Yu, 22, succumbed to nerve and landed onto the ice after a triple Salchow jump and a throw triple Salchow.

For the host South Korean spectators, their hearts went for Ryom Tae-ok/Kim Ju-sik from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The confident pair stunned the world in their Olympic debut on Wednesday with a composed routine to finish 11th in the 22-pair short program competition.

Despite an unsynchronized side-by-side double Axel and Ryom's hand touch-landing after a throw triple loop in the long program, the DPRK pair refreshed their personal best with 193.63 points before a loud, adoring DPRK female cheer squad, to finish the 13th out of 16 pairs.

In the team event competition on Monday, Canada won the gold medal, with the OAR claiming the silver and the United States the bronze

Chinese leaders extend Spring Festival greetings

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BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping, on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people Wednesday.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military

 Commission, delivered a speech to a festival reception at the Great Hall of the People in 

Beijing, greeting all Chinese on the mainland, in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and abroad.

The Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, is regarded as the most important traditional

 festival for those of Chinese origin, characterized by family gatherings, feasts and 

performances. It falls on Feb. 16 this year.

The reception was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang. Other senior leaders, including 

Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Zhang Gaoli, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning,

 Zhao Leji and Han Zheng, also greeted the present 2,000 people.

HARD WORK IN NEW ERA

Xi encouraged Chinese people to work hard in the new era, saying happiness can only be 

earned by filling one's life with endeavors.

"There will be difficulties in our endeavor, but battling them will also purify our souls and 

strengthen our faith," said Xi.

Xi stressed that the great endeavor of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese

 characteristics will take generations, even dozens of generations, of hard work.

Those fighting in these efforts will be richest in spirit, and will have the most profound

 understanding of happiness, according to Xi.

Xi called on CPC members to always focus their work on the aspirations of the people to

 live a better life, and to always fight for the people and with the people.

There should be both competition and solidarity in the endeavor, said Xi.

At the 19th CPC National Congress in October, the Party announced that socialism with

 Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era with decades of hard work.

APPRECIATING PROGRESS

Reviewing the achievements made by the Chinese people over the last year, Xi said time

 is the "most objective witness."

Xi praised the achievements in developing the economy, deepening reform, advancing law-

based governance, improving people's lives and fighting poverty, as well as the progress in

 national defense and building the armed forces, diplomacy on all fronts, and full and strict

 governance over the CPC. Xi said this progress has "propelled the vessel of China toward 

new waters."

Xi said these achievements were made by the Chinese people with their own hands and

 generations of continuous hard work and expressed the highest respect to the old

 generations of heroes, model workers, soldiers and comrades who contributed to China's

 national independence, development and prosperity.

Noting that 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy, Xi 

said over the last 40 years, China has taken the great leap from "catching up with the times

" to "leading the times."

Xi said the 19th CPC National Congress held last year outlined the direction for developing

 socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and charted the new journey toward

 the goal of building a modern socialist China.

Facing a complicated international environment and the arduous missions of reform,

 development and stability in 2018, Xi called on the whole Party, military and Chinese people

 of all ethnic groups to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee and work to turn the

 guidelines, strategies and arrangements into reality with concrete and down-to-earth efforts.

FAMILY VALUES

Speaking of traditional family values, Xi said that "during the Spring Festival, when members

 of a family get together, we feel that reunion is happiness and unity is strength."

Family has always been valued by the Chinese people and harmony in a family makes

 everything successful, said Xi.

"We should nurture and practice core socialist values, foster the traditional virtues of the

 Chinese nation, and love both family and the country," he said.

Xi also urged the people to integrate their personal and family dreams with the Chinese

 Dream.

"We should pool the wisdom and strength of more than 1.3 billion Chinese people in more 

than 400 million households to strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese 

characteristics for a new era and realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation," he said.

Spring Festival 　 The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees. The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one. Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days. The Chinese government now stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year. Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others have weakened. On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko. The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious food to enjoy themselves. After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called "Seeing the New Year in". Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New Year. Materials not only include edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds of nuts. What's more, various decorations, new clothes and shoes for the children as well as gifts for the elderly, friends and relatives, are all on the list of purchasing. Before the New Year comes, the people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their homes as well as their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils. Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners' wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance. The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes", both being pronounced as "fudaole." What's more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall. People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively "ji", "yu" and "doufu," mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. According to custom, each family will stay up to see the New Year in. Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think "jiaozi" in sound means "bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new". Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure. Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after another." The first five days after the Spring Festival are a good time for relatives, friends, and classmates as well as colleagues to exchange greetings, gifts and chat leisurely. Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room. The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and lanes. A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held for days. The Spring Festival then comes to an end when the Lantern Festival is finished. China has 56 ethnic groups. Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival almost the same day as the Han people, and they have different customs.

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German president slams AfD party for using "strategy of hate

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BERLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday heavily criticized the anti-immigration populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) for controversial comments made by its regional leader in Saxony-Anhalt Andre Poggenburg earlier.

"What I see is that there are politicians who make use of excessive language, ruthlessness and hatred as their own strategy," Steinmeier said during a visit to the town of Halle in Poggenburg's home state on Thursday.

"I can only hope that the citizens do not allow themselves to be fooled by these tactics," the president added. Steinmeier further called on politicians to be "aware of their role model character and behave accordingly".

The German president's criticism was a response to public statements made by Poggenburg on Wednesday during a seasonal carnival event in which he described people of Turkish origin in Germany as a "homeless mob".

"Those camel drivers should go back to where they belong, far, far behind the Bosporus to their mud huts and multiple wives," the AfD politician told an audience of party supporters. The crowd met Poggenburg's racist tirade with cheers.

It was not the first time that Poggenburg drew attention to himself for the use of extreme language. Back in 2017, Poggenburg had provoked widespread outrage by using the Neo-Nazi slogan "Germany for Germans" on an internal AfD chat.

Reacting to yet another angry backlash on Thursday, Poggenburg said that he had only formulated his speech "so trenchantly" because of the informal nature of the seasonal festivity.

The AfD politician argued that he had never intended to "directly insult or degrade other nationalities".

However, even fellow AfD politicians criticized Poggenburg for his choice of words on Thursday.

AfD co-leader Joerg Meuthen said that the comments in question were "far too extreme and should not have been made".

Similarly, AfD regional politician Frank Hansel questioned whether Poggenburg was trying to lower the standing of the party in opinion polls.

"Are our AfD polling figures too high again that we need to purposefully push them down again ourselves?" Hansel asked laconically. "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

Holger Stahlknecht, vice-president of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Saxony-Anhalt, warned that individuals like Poggenburg were gradually transforming the AfD into a Neo-Nazi party. "If Poggenburg stays, the AfD is on a journey into a right-wing extremist abyss," Stahlknecht said.

Scientists grow human eggs to full maturity in a lab

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LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Scientists have succeeded for the first time in growing human eggs in a laboratory from the earliest stages in ovarian tissue all the way to full maturity - a scientific step that had previously been taken in mice.

An undated picture shows a magnification of a lab-grown fully matured human egg ready for fertilization. Doctor David Albertini/University of Edinburgh/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

Publishing their result in the journal Molecular Human Reproduction on Friday, scientists from Britain and the United States said it could one day help in developing regenerative medicine therapies and new infertility treatments.

In previous studies, scientists had developed mouse eggs in a laboratory to the stage where they produced live offspring, and had also matured human eggs from a relatively late stage of development.

This latest work, by scientists at two research hospitals in Edinburgh and the Center for Human Reproduction in New York, is the first time human eggs have been developed outside the human body from their earliest stage to full maturity.

“Being able to fully develop human eggs in the lab could widen the scope of available fertility treatments. We are now working on optimising the conditions that support egg development in this way and studying how healthy they are,” said Evelyn Telfer, who co-led the work.

A series of magnified images show human eggs in development stages. Prof. Evelyn Telfer and Dr. Marie McLaughlin/University of Edinburgh/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

Independent experts not directly involved in this work praised it as important, but also cautioned that there is much more to do before lab-grown human eggs could be safely be made ready for fertilisation with sperm.

“This early data suggests this may well be feasible in the future,” said Ali Abbara, a senior clinical lecturer in Endocrinology at Imperial College London.

“(But) the technology remains at an early stage, and much more work is needed to make sure that the technique is safe and optimised before we ascertain whether these eggs remain normal during the process, and can be fertilised to form embryos that could lead to healthy babies.”

Darren Griffin, a genetics professor at Kent University in the UK, said the work was “an impressive technical achievement”.

If success and safety rates were improved, he said, it could in future help cancer patients wishing to preserve their fertility while undergoing chemotherapy treatment, improve fertility treatments, and deepen scientific understanding of the biology of the earliest stages of human life.

Editing by Mark Heinrich

How PNB fell victim to India's biggest bank fraud

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Punjab National Bank, the second-biggest state-run lender, stunned the country's financial sector when it announced this week it had discovered fraudulent transactions worth $1.77 billion at a single branch in Mumbai.

A security guard stands guard inside a Nirav Modi showroom during a raid by Enforcement Directorate, a government agency that fights financial crime, in New Delhi, India, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

The fraud, by far the biggest ever detected by an Indian bank, comes to light at a time when lenders - especially the state-run banks - are hobbled by $147 billion in soured loans on their books, a problem that has choked new lending and hurt the country's economic recovery.

Despite tight fiscal conditions, the government recently extended a $14 billion bailout to ailing state banks as part of a broader $32 billion rescue plan. The sector also faces higher capital requirements by next year to meet new global banking rules known as Basel III.

Following is an explainer on the PNB fraud and its implications for other lenders and India’s banking sector:

WHAT IS THE FRAUD ALLEGATION ABOUT?

On Jan. 29, a PNB official from Mumbai filed a criminal complaint with India’s federal investigative agency against three companies and four people, including billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the managing director of Gitanjali Gems Ltd, saying they had defrauded the bank and caused a loss of 2.8 billion rupees ($43.8 million).

The bank alleged two junior employees at the Mumbai branch had helped the companies and people managing them get “letters of undertaking” (LoUs) from it without having a sanctioned credit limit or maintaining funds “on margin”.

The LoUs were used to obtain short-term credit from overseas branches of other Indian banks, PNB said.

Based on the complaint, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a preliminary case against the companies and the people named on Jan. 31 and PNB said a detailed probe was underway.

On Wednesday, PNB said in a regulatory filing it had discovered fraudulent and unauthorised transactions totalling $1.77 billion at the Mumbai branch. Investigators have said the latest disclosure was related to the earlier case filed.

HOW DID THE FRAUD COME TO LIGHT?

PNB says that on Jan. 16 the accused firms presented a set of import documents to the Mumbai branch and requested buyers’ credit to pay overseas suppliers. Since they had no pre-arranged credit limit, the branch official asked the companies to put down the full amount as collateral so the bank could issue LoUs to authorise the credit.

When the firms argued that they had used such facilities in the past without keeping any money on margin, PNB scanned through records and found no trace of any transactions, according to the bank’s account.

It then found that two junior employees had issued LoUs on the SWIFT interbank messaging system without entering the transactions on the bank’s own system. Such transactions went on for years without detection, PNB said.

Banking sources have said in some banks the SWIFT system, which is used for international transactions, and the core banking system work independently of each other. In PNB’s case, it said the outstanding LoUs were not available on its core banking system run on Infosys’s Finacle software, thus the LoUs issued went undetected.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE AND COMPANIES ACCUSED OF INVOLVEMENT?

PNB has accused three companies - Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R US - it said belong to Nirav Modi, a high-end jeweller who runs his eponymous Nirav Modi stores that spread from New York to Hong Kong. Modi is worth $1.73 billion according to Forbes rankings.

Modi’s companies colluded with the bank staff, PNB said, adding that it suspected some officials at foreign branches of other Indian banks that extended credit were also involved.

It also named Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra - companies promoted by another jeweller, Mehul Choksi, who is Modi’s uncle.

Gitanjali last week denied Choksi had any involvement with the alleged fraud, saying he would take “necessary legal steps” to get his name removed from the CBI case.

Modi has not commented on the case. His flagship Firestar Diamond has said it had no involvement.

PNB said it has begun criminal action against two staff members and suspended some others. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the two staff members.

WHAT ARE THE AUTHORITIES DOING?

Federal investigators swung into action on Thursday, conducting searches at PNB branches and also at Nirav Modi’s home and offices, local media said.

The finance ministry has issued an advisory to all banks to review their large customer exposures, according to media reports. The Enforcement Directorate, which investigates frauds involving foreign exchange transactions, was also conducting a probe, Mint newspaper said.

WHO ASSUMES THE LIABILITY?

PNB has said the transactions are “contingent” in nature, and it will decide on the liability based on the law and the genuineness of underlying transactions.

Banking sources have said several other banks who have extended loans based on the PNB LoUs that were later found to be fraudulent are at risk of losing money.

Some of the banks say PNB is liable to pay since it issued the LoUs, although PNB, in a Feb. 12 “caution notice” addressed to chief executives of 30 banks, including two foreign banks, said the other banks also have a share in the blame as they “overlooked” certain Indian central bank rules.

It also said none of the overseas branches of India-based banks had shared with PNB any documents or information at the time of extending buyers’ credit to the companies.

PNB said Nirav Modi had written to the bank but had yet to offer any formal proposal for a repayment.

($1 = 63.9200 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Alex Richardson