Russia to Syrian asylum seekers: Get out

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By Maria Vasilyeva MOSCOW (Reuters) - In pre-war Syria, Safaa Al-Kurdi sold wedding dresses. Fed up with the conflict, the mother-of-three fled Damascus four years ago and sought asylum in Moscow. Now, Russia is saying she must go home. Safaa is one of thousands of Syrian refugees that Russia, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad, is urging to return. Large parts of Syria are safe, Russian officials say, and there is no reason for asylum seekers like Safaa, 55, to remain. The Russian stance is creating problems for Syrians here who are seeing their asylum requests rejected. Banned from working, they face the threat of arrest and deportation. "Since my children are there and Syria is my country, I would naturally like to return," Safaa, whose two eldest sons were drafted into the Syrian army, said through tears. "But it's not possible for anyone to return in this situation. People know that there is poverty, that people are dying of cold or from hunger, or from bombing."

According to the U.N. refugee agency, nearly 5.5 million Syrians have fled a war that has raged over seven years. In 2015, when Moscow launched a military operation in Syria, Russia granted temporary asylum to 1,924 Syrians. That number has fallen every year since, according to statistics agency Rosstat, hitting a low of 823 asylum applications in 2018. The Civil Assistance Committee, an NGO working with refugees, says Russia wants the Syrians out.

"DON'T COME BACK" "Most of them get rejected, and the ones that don't are told: We warn you, this is the last time we will extend your documents, next year don't come back," said Yevgeny Yastrebov, a co-ordinator with the committee. Some Syrians have already left, he said, adding that others are forced to bribe the police to stay. "It's a constant game of hide-and-seek you have to play with the government, which is not a fun thing to do if you have kids and you need to feed them," he said. When Safaa left Damascus in 2015, she had a little money from selling her garments workshop. Her youngest son, Al-Amir, 23, followed her to Russia afterwards.

Their asylum applications have been repeatedly rejected and so far their appeals have also been refused. With her savings gone, Safaa makes ends meet by selling jewellery at a Moscow market. Her son declines to talk about his employment situation for fear of official reprisals. Their joint income is just enough to rent a small apartment in a village some 50 km (31 miles) east of Moscow. "I want to stay for a while before returning, I want to try to save a little bit of money to be able to open a little venture, to be able to live off of it in Syria," said Safaa. When her asylum appeal process is exhausted, she says she will return home, but wants her son to stay away from Syria. "Life is not possible there. It's like the war is over but it's not over at the same time." (Additional reporting by Ahmad El-Katib in Moscow; Editing by Andrew Osborn and William Maclean) 

3 Top Cloud Computing Stocks to Buy Now

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by Chris Neiger (TMFNewsie) -- There's a battle raging between a handful of data storage companies to be the dominant player in the public cloud computing market. Apps, analytics, advertising, artificial intelligence and a host of other services all depend on cloud-based data to function, which is why Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have invested so heavily in this tech over the past few years. Each company is trying to carve out more market share in the $278 billion (by 2023) public cloud computing market. And the good news is that there's likely enough cloud computing demand for all three companies -- and their investors -- to benefit. If you're interested in investing in the top cloud computing stocks, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon are the top-notch contenders you should be considering. Here's why.

Alphabet's growing focus

Alphabet sells cloud computing services through its Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and right now it holds a 9.5% market share, making it the third-largest player behind Amazon and Microsoft. The company doesn't disclose how much its cloud platform makes, but a recent report from Canalys estimates that sales from GCP were $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. That's far less than Amazon's revenue of $7.3 billion, but Google is making moves to help it catch up to its rivals. Google has made several purchases of smaller cloud computing companies to help boost its services, the most recent one being the acquisition of a cloud migration company called Alooma. Google has also said that it will spend $13 billion to add additional data centers throughout the U.S. to improve its cloud services. On Alphabet's most recent earnings call, management said that GCP had more than doubled the amount of cloud computing deals worth more than $1 million last year. And with the company's recent commitment to spending billions on building more data centers and snatching up smaller cloud companies along the way, counting Alphabet out in the cloud space would be a huge mistake.

Microsoft's reinvention of itself

Microsoft has emerged as one of the strongest cloud computing contenders through its Azure cloud service. The company has about 16.5% of the market right now, and in the most recent quarter sales from Azure were up 76% year over year. The company made several significant cloud deals in the second quarter, including agreements with UBS, MasterCard, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Starbucks, and Kroger. The new Kroger deal will use Azure and Microsoft's artificial intelligence prowess to improve in-store customer experiences. Microsoft's Azure is not only generating significant sales for the company, it's also an essential driver of gross margin as well. In the second quarter the company's commercial cloud gross margin increased by five points to an impressive 62%. For a company that was once synonymous with PC software, it's nothing short of amazing for Microsoft to have successfully transitioned to the cloud -- and become the No. 2 player no less. Investors should expect a lot more from Microsoft's cloud business, as the company looks to pair Azure even more with artificial intelligence in the future to become a dominant AI cloud computing company.

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The classroom of the future

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by Bill Gates -- Textbooks are becoming obsolete as software is finally changing how students learn. I read more than my share of textbooks. But it’s a pretty limited way to learn something. Even the best text can’t figure out which concepts you understand and which ones you need more help with. It certainly can’t tell your teacher how well you grasped last night’s assigned reading. But now, thanks to software, the standalone textbook is becoming a thing of the past. Suppose you’re taking high school algebra. Instead of just reading a chapter on solving equations, you can look at the text online, watch a super-engaging video that shows you how it’s done, and play a game that reinforces the concepts. Then you solve a few problems online, and the software creates new quiz questions to zero in on the ideas you’re not quite getting.

All of this is a complement to what teachers do, not a replacement. Your teacher gets a rich report showing what you read and watched, which problems you got right and wrong, and the areas where you need more help. When you come to class the next day, she is equipped with a ton of specific information and suggestions to help her make the most of her time with you. When I told you about this type of software in previous letters, it was mostly speculative. But now I can report that these tools have been adopted in thousands of U.S. classrooms from kindergarten through high school. Zearn, i-Ready, and LearnZillion are examples of digital curricula used by students and teachers throughout the U.S. More than 3,000 schools are teaching a free digital course that I fund called Big History, which uses software to give students immediate feedback on their writing assignments.

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Lebanese government faces first public dispute between Future Movement and Hezbollah

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by arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has responded to a campaign launched by Hezbollah accusing him of corruption and demanding that he should be brought to justice. He said: “The campaign aims to demonize all the governments headed by Rafic Hariri and attack him as well as all the prime ministers who followed him, including Saad Hariri.” “This campaign against Siniora, and therefore against Hariri’s axis, has commenced before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon issues its ruling on the assassination of former PM Rafic Hariri, which five Hezbollah members are accused of and are escaping from prosecution,” a source close to Siniora said. Siniora broke his silence in a press conference on Friday, during which he attacked Hezbollah: “The biggest corruption is political corruption, and everyone who establishes smaller states within the state, controls the state’s facilities, disrupts the constitutional deadline, and denies the course of law is politically corrupt.” He said: “We are looking these days at something similar to what happened during the days of the security regime 20 years ago when I was framed.” Siniora’s speech reminded the Lebanese people of a campaign launched by the Lebanese-Syrian security regime against Rafic Hariri in 1998-2000.

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Lebanese president pledges safe return of Syrian refugees

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by NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com --- BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun pledged the safe return of Syrian refugees, with the European Union (EU) confirming it was ready to help in all areas of repatriation. Aoun met the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in Beirut. She had been in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for a two-day Arab-EU summit and was on the same flight as Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who had also been at the summit. During a meeting with Mogherini, Aoun said: “Lebanon will continue to work to ensure the return of Syrian refugees to safe areas in Syria, and we will not wait for a political solution to the Syrian crisis as it may take long. “We have received information in Beirut indicating that returning refugees are being cared for by the Syrian authorities, who have provided them with prefabs, infrastructure and schools - the EU and other international organizations can verify this.” Aoun said that while the EU made political decisions, Lebanon’s were socio-economic, referring to the negative impact of the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon.

He suggested that “international aid should be paid to Syrian refugees after they return home to encourage their return,” explaining that “distributing aid to refugees in Lebanon along with their work here in which they compete with the Lebanese labor force are encouraging them to stay, leading to an increase in the immigration of Lebanese youth.” Aoun stressed that cooperation between the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon to maintain stability on the southern Lebanese border would continue. Mogherini briefed the Lebanese president on the outcomes of the summit and also met Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who discussed with her the Lebanese-Israeli maritime dispute over the maritime border. He called on the EU to play an effective role in its demarcation. He also highlighted the need to understand Lebanon’s position on helping Syrian refugees return to their country. Mogherini and Hariri inaugurated a new EU building, and Mogherini described it as “the best symbol of friendship and family atmosphere” linking the EU with Lebanon. “The work we are doing in Lebanon in the security and defense sectors are not only for Lebanon but also for the security of Europe. We certainly have political, economic and social dialogues, our bilateral trade is increasing year after year, and investment in Lebanon has become an increasing priority. “During the Cedar Conference, we pledged to contribute a package of more than 1.5 billion euros until 2020 in conjunction with the reforms scheduled to be implemented, and we learned that the government is determined to implement them. “Lebanon may be the most European country among Arab countries, and I hope that European students would continue their education in Lebanon.” Hariri said Lebanon was Europe’s gateway to the Arab world and the Arab World’s gateway to Europe. “The EU has always supported Lebanon's sovereignty and independence and continues to be our partner in peace, stability, prosperity and growth, and we are grateful for that.”

Lebanese demand civil marriage on home soil

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 Source: AFP -- BEIRUT: Dozens of protesters rallied in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Saturday (Feb 23), calling on the government to recognise civil marriages carried out on home soil. The demonstrators gathered in front of Lebanon's interior ministry, days after recently-appointed Interior Minister Raya al-Hasan said she is willing to engage in "serious and profound dialogue" over the issue. The minister's comments prompted a backlash from religious bodies, including the highest Sunni authority in Lebanon, and stirred debate on social media. Lebanon has 15 separate personal status laws for its recognised religions but no civil code covering issues such as marriage. Many Lebanese couples travel to neighbouring Cyprus to tie the knot in a civil ceremony, because Lebanese authorities recognise such unions only if they have been registered abroad.

Hasan, the first female interior minister in Lebanon and the Arab world, touched on the issue of civil unions in an interview with Euronews last week. She said she would "personally endorse" attempts to establish a framework to govern civil marriages in Lebanon. "I will try to open the door for serious and profound dialogue on this issue with all religious authorities and others, with the support of Prime Minister Saad Hariri," she said. Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni authority in Lebanon, issued a response the day after Hasan's interview was published, saying it "categorically rejects" civil unions conducted on Lebanese soil. Such unions "violate the provisions of Islamic law" and "contravene the provisions of the Lebanese constitution" regarding the authority of religious courts over personal status issues, it said. The highest Shiite authority in the country also expressed opposition. "The Lebanese constitution recognises that every sect has its own personal status laws," deputy head of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council said Friday. "We strongly oppose civil marriage because it violates the constitution," he said.

The head of Lebanon's Maronite church, Beshara Rai, however, said he was "not against civil unions" conducted on Lebanese territory. In 2013, the interior ministry took the unprecedented step of registering a civil marriage conducted in Lebanon. However, only a handful of civil marriages have been recognised since the landmark decision, campaigner Lucien Bourjeily told AFP on Saturday. Former president Elias Hrawi in 1998 proposed a civil marriage law, which gained approval from the cabinet only to be halted amid widespread opposition from the country's religious authorities.