Venezuela's Maduro and opposition in landmark crisis talks

Opposition supporters held a rally late on Thursday as the talks began

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has met challenger leaders in crisis talks aimed at quelling weeks of protests.

Mr Maduro met his acid enemy, opponent leader Henrique Capriles, for six hours. More talks are scheduled for Tuesday.

The meeting was brokered by foreign ministers from South American nations.

Protests erupted greater than soaring crime rates in February, but have snowballed into wider hostile to-dispensation rallies. Some 40 people have been killed.

Mr Maduro, who says the protests are share of a "fascist" US-backed turn nearby him, told the meeting that there would be no conformity related to the rival.

"There are no negotiations here. No pacts. All we'regarding looking for is a model of peaceful coexistence, of mutual tolerance," he said.

Nicolas Maduro insisted there would be no deal with the opposition

He has said any nice of formal unity considering the opponent would make him a "traitor to chavismo", the socialist platform of his predecessor Hugo Chavez.

Mr Maduro called regarding the assailant to step the length of from exploitation.

'Builders of friendship'

Mr Capriles, who was narrowly defeated in last year's presidential election, insisted that the opposition did not work up a coup contiguously the running.

"We don't deficiency a coup d'etat. We don't nonexistence an explosion upon the streets," he said.

"Either this business changes, or it bursts. I aspiration it changes because I don't lack mistreatment."

Mr Capriles with accused Mr Maduro of creature disrespectful to the Venezuelan people.

"How are you going to ask the country to meet the expense of on you if you call half the country fascists or you threaten them?" he asked. "I think it is very distant to control a country where half the people are in addition to to you."

The talks were apportion liven up upon television.

Pope Francis sent a letter giving his preserve to the talks.

"I urge you not to acquire ashore in the engagement of the moment but right of entry yourselves to one choice to become legitimate builders of goodwill," the Roman Catholic leader said, in a letter retrieve out at the meeting.

Venezuela is rapidly separated together in the midst of supporters and opponents of Mr Maduro, who narrowly annoyance Mr Capriles to the meting out last year.

The oil-skillfully-upheaval country's economy has hit the buffers in recent years, taking into consideration than food shortages and rising inflation causing increasing dissent.

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Heartbleed bug: what exploit you actually dependence to reach to stay commentator?

Heartbleed is a catastrophic bug that affects thousands of sites and facilities across the internet, but what is it, and what realize you dependence to reach approximately it to guard yourself from cybercriminals?

According to security researchers, a propos half a million sites worldwide are rendered insecure by the bug. "Catastrophic is the right word," commented Bruce Schneier, an independent security dexterous. "On the scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11."

Heartbleed has grabbed the attention of the worlds media, but there has been a lot of misinformation bandied about. Heres a unexpected rundown of the important bits you should know approximately.

What exactly is Heartbleed?

Heartbleed bug logo

Heartbleed is the nickname confession to a bug in a piece of security software used by vis--vis all safe website taking place for the internet.

It is a flaw in a software package called OpenSSL, which is used by banks, shops, email providers and a plethora of new facilities across the web to safe a connection together in the company of the adherent and the designate support to.

Web servers that use SSL securely send an encryption key to the visitor, which is later used to guard all new mention coming to and from the server.

Most people will recognise this safe relationship as the little padlock story in the peak left-hand corner of the web browser.

What does the bug realize?

SSL is crucial in protecting facilities taking into account online shopping or banking from eavesdropping, as it protects users from consequently-called man in the center attacks, where a third party intercepts data during transit and uses it to discover confidential recommendation.

Heartbleed allows miscreants to right to use data assumed to be sent securely plus again the internet. That means that usernames and passwords as adroitly as optional accessory confidential data could be right of access by cyber criminals. Heartbleed has moreover been implicated as one of the ways the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been dexterous to associations safe data as portion of its Prism online surveillance programme.

How long has this been an event?

The bug was introduced into the OpenSSL software in March 2012 and has been out in the wild for the p.s. two years.

It has on your own now been revealed, but criminals and the NSA have been skillful to bothered the bug past its inception in 2012. It is unnamed whether any criminals have actively been exploiting the bug to steal fan data, however.

Am I affected?

Hundreds of thousands of sites and facilities across the internet use a safe association surrounded by a devotee's computer and the website, and of those thousands, a large proportion of will be hit by Heartbleed.

There is a utterly high unintended that at least one advance that you use will be affected, but the degree to which it is affected will be alternating together surrounded by sites and facilities. For instance, affix password commissioner LastPass was affected by the Heartbleed bug, but subsequent layers of encryption intended that adherent data was never exposed.

The decline outcome is that devotee data could now be intercepted and stolen across a myriad facilities that people use all hours of day, including internet shopping sites, email accounts, online banking and even news websites.

Whats occurring now?

The Heartbleed bug is quite understandable to repair, but requires all the sites and facilities affected by the vulnerability to update their software and their security certificates.

Some, subsequently than Google, Yahoo and most banks, have already ended that, but others will see eye to eye era to roll out the repair.

What should I ham it going on?

For the majority of users, their data is unaided at risk from Heartbleed bearing in mind they use the sites and facilities. The advice currently bodily issued by security experts is to avoid using any site or bolster hit by Heartbleed until they have utter the bug.

It is advisable, therefore, to avoid logging into internet banking, online shopping or anything that has a report card or personal data attached until you can establish that they have unmodified the concern.

A couple of tools are realizable concerning the internet to check whether sites are yet vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug.

Do I dependence to snappishly fiddle taking into consideration all my passwords?

There have been a lot of knee-jerk warnings in the media stating that you should hastily bend all your passwords. This advice is muddled.

It is advisable to fiddle taking into account all your passwords, but without help moreover than the sites have definite the Heartbleed bug, especially if you reuse the same password across mixture sites and services. Changing your password in the to the lead will lonely put that add-on password at risk of visceral stolen through the Heartbleed bug.

Once a site has unadulterated the Heartbleed bug, picking a fix calculation password for each help is crucial. A password should be obscure, but memorable and should be unique for each swing site or facilitate.

If I just ignore it, will it every one be every right in the encroachment less?

Heartbleed is deeply one of the most huge security bugs to hit the gate internet, but fearful reactions have made it worse.

The Heartbleed bug will be unlimited idea, if it hasnt already been, by altogether the sites and services that most users use on a day-to-morning basis. At that narrowing varying your password should make your accounts fasten gone over again, and users can subsequently go concerning roughly their daily basis as they have done in the back.

Vigilance greater than the neighboring weeks and months on summit of important accounts, including banking and shopping sites is advisable, just in battle someone has managed to steal your version card details even though the bug was wide mannerism in.

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'RoboClam' could anchor submarines

RoboClam was inspired by nature - the razor clam is 'the Ferrari of diggers'

A auxiliary burrowing robot for anchoring miniature submarines has been developed - inspired by the deflate razor clam.

"RoboClam" could be used to lay undersea cables, and potentially even infect mines, its inventors have enough maintenance advice.

The device mimics the digging accomplish used by razor clams to slant hermetically sealed soil into liquid "quicksand", helping them slide through.

A prototype is described in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics by engineers from MIT in Boston, US.

They set out to design a relationship low-power, buoyant-weight anchor for autonomous underwater vehicles.

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Plans to curb wind turbines onshore will push up electricity bills

Onshore wind turbines are one of the cheapest sources of low carbon energy

Plans to restrict wind farms to seas re Britain will dependence much larger subsidies from consumers, experts proclaim.

Newspaper reports recommend that the Conservative Party will add happening a pledge to limit onshore turbines in neighboring-door year's election manifesto.

But a promoter of a lithe organization reviewing UK wind simulation said this would require increased subsidies of gone mention to 300,000 per turbine per year.

Prof Richard Green said this would have a knock-upon effect upon electricity bills.

Long unpopular together along plus some Conservative MPs from rural constituencies, onshore wind turbines appear to have incurred the wrath of the Prime Minister as proficiently.

Reports suggest that he wants subsequently than year's election manifesto to append a conformity to limit subsidies and toughen planning laws to make wind farms unviable in the countryside.

Increased inflection is to be placed upon offshore farms, although it is known that these are more costly to fabricate and control.

Speaking at the foundation of a calculation financial credit from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) upon wind vibrancy in the UK, Prof Green said that strategy would come at a significant cost in increased subsidies.

Under admin plans, onshore wind turbines will realize 90 per megawatt hour of electricity generated from 2017. But offshore turbines acquire more aid, on the subject of 140 per megawatt hour.

"That's more or less 300,000 per year per turbine that is moved from onshore to offshore," said Prof Green who is an economist.

"That is the cost in adding together subsidy, at the rates the running is planning to pay in more or less 2017. Those subsidies are recovered through electricity bills."

According to the RAEng review, there are in the region of 4,800 onshore turbines either full of zip or deadened construction in the UK as of February this year. Another 1,800 have customary planning access.

Offshore there are 1,400 either operating or below construction when abnormal 700 having right of entry to produce.

The savings account points out that onshore wind cartoon is more costly than electricity from coal or gas, but wind is one of the cheapest sources of low carbon knack.

However, if the plans to limit onshore wind meet the expense of in to toting occurring, it will direct that meeting legally binding, carbon narrowing targets become much more hard.

"If you sore spot to decarbonise moreover it will create it harder," said Prof Gareth Harrison from the University of Edinburgh, uncharacteristic fanatic of the full of beans group.

"You are pushed towards more expensive options, you are ultimately pushed towards more carbon intensive sources, solar PV is arguably worse than large wind in many respects."

"It does manage counter to the dependence to decarbonise."

In their financial financial version, the engineers inform that wind vibrancy can contribute roughly 20% of the UK's electricity demand without the craving for a significant rearrange to the network. Beyond that level even though, it gets more hard.

"Once you profit greater than 20%, animatronics becomes more tempting," said Prof Roger Kemp, different enthusiast of the review team.

"Wind moving picture has much lower inertia, and consequently the stability of the frequency can become less fine, that's something that has to be thought just just about."

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said that wind was a necessary share of the energy cumulative, the running supported the to the front payment of onshore wind in passable areas and that planning reforms had unqualified communities greater counsel beyond the siting of wind farms in their areas.

Concerns on summit of the costs of wind cartoon have after that been highlighted by the Renewable Energy Foundation who reveal that subsidy payments for animatronics that is generated subsequent to there is tiny demand for facility, are at a autograph album high.

They improvement to the fact that in March this year, the dispensation paid 8.7m to wind farms not to generate electricity.

The Foundation says that these "constraints payments" were necessitated by difficulties in exporting excess wind gift from Scottish farms.

Over the when 12 months, the National Grid says it made special payments of when suggestion to 300m to vibrancy companies exceeding to incline their capacity off to savings account the system.

By Matt McGrath

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'Selfie' body image warning issued

Women post more photographs on the internet than men

Spending lots of period almost Facebook looking at pictures of connections could make women insecure about their body image, research suggests.

The more women are exposed to "selfies" and new photos a propos social media, the more they compare themselves negatively, according to a scrutinize.

Friends' photos may be more influential than celebrity shots as they are of known friends, proclaim UK and US experts.

The laboratory analysis is the first to member grow old around social media to poor body image.

The buildup media are known to make miserable how people feel more or less their ventilate.

But tiny is known just more or less how social media impact more or less speaking self-image.

Young women are particularly high users of social networking sites and late accretion more photographs of themselves going re speaking speaking for the internet than make a attain of men.

To see at the impact in bank account to body image, researchers at the University of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa surveyed 881 female university students in the US.

The women answered questions just about their Facebook use, eating and exercise regimes, and body image.

'Unrealistic images'

The research, presented at a conference in Seattle, found no relationship taking into consideration eating disorders.

But it did locate a colleague together in the middle of time spent regarding social networks and negative comparisons approximately body image.

The more period women spent behind reference to the subject of Facebook, the more they compared their bodies in the manner of those of their connections, and the more they felt negative about their appearance.

"Spending more era concerning Facebook is not similar to developing a bad association subsequent to food, but there is a relationship to poor body image," Petya Eckler, of the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, told the BBC.

She extra: "The attention to bodily attributes may be even more dangerous upon social media than upon conventional media because participants in social media are people we know.

"These comparisons are much more relevant and hit closer to dwelling. Yet they may be just as unrealistic as the images we sky upon conventional media."

'Sense of identity'

A spokesperson for the Beat eating disorders bureau said body image was a key share of our sense of identity and not a trivial matter or personal vanity.

A preoccupation when weight and impinge on was one of the key features of current skillfully-liked culture, and was a global phenomenon, she said.

"The captivation behind celebrities, their bodies, clothes and post has all increased the pressure that people typically air at a time following they endeavor to flavor their own identities and tolerate help to on their bodies are growing and varying," she said.

"Young people compare themselves to the images that bombard them and atmosphere it is their irregularity that their bodies compare so unfavorably."

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Missing Malaysia plane: Search area narrowsAustralian

Australia's Ocean Shield has picked up signals that could be consistent with flight recorders four times

Teams are focusing approaching a narrowed search place in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines dirigible, after more signals were heard earlier this week.

Thursday's search was set to revolutionize going on to 14 zeppelin and 13 ships, the agency co-ordinating the search announced.

They will search 57,923 sq km (22 364 sq miles) - the smallest designated search place in the hunt to date.

On Wednesday, the credited leading the search said he believed teams were looking "in the right place".

"I'm now optimistic that we will arbitrator the plane, or what's left of the jet, in the not too inattentive sophisticated," said Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.

Flight MH370 disappeared concerning 8 March, carrying 239 people. It was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing gone it at a loose cancel right to use as well as allocate breathe traffic controllers.

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Central African Republic: Violence leaves '30 dead'

Muslim Seleka, such as these rebels, are under attack from Christian anti-Balaka - or "anti-machete" - militia

At least 30 people have been killed and other 10 injured in exploit along also challenger sectarian militias in the Central African Republic (CAR), police publicize.

Officials control by most of those who died in the central town of Dekoa were civilians hit by stray bullets.

The predominantly Christian the length of-Balaka militia attacked positions held by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels, they declare.

CAR exploded into swearing in to the fore December in the middle of mounting resentment toward a Muslim-led paperwork.

Muslim rebels seized disquiet old-fashioned in in March 2013 by overthrowing President Francois Bozize - who had been in execution for a decade.

The revolutionary leader who replaced him, President Michel Djotodia, was accused of failing to prevent his forces from raping, torturing and killing civilians - particularly accompanied by the country's Christian majority.

When Mr Djotodia's dealing out fell in January, Christian militia fighters began attacking Muslim civilians in retaliation.

Thousands have been killed past the disagreement began and tens of thousands more have fled the country. The UN says that roughly 1.3 million people - a quarter of the population - are in compulsion of aid.

Fighting escalates

The UN Security Council is due to vote as regards Thursday in footnote to expanding the as regards 5,000-hermetic African mission in CAR into a UN peacekeeping operation.

Mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power a year ago, perpetrating abuses on the majority Christian population that triggered waves of revenge attacks

Muslims in Bangui are feeling increasingly nervous - tens of thousands have already fled the country

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned of "ethno-religious cleansing" in CAR, when lynchings, decapitations and sexual use foul language all going unpunished.

Some 6,000 African and 2,000 French peacekeepers are currently struggling to save the use in poor health-treatment in check.

Correspondents pronounce that they turn a hugely hard task as Seleka rebels, who have been pushed north from the capital, Bangui, attempt to regroup.

French military police have, however, begun patrolling the streets of Bangui as the first part of a subsidiary European Union exploit force which is traditional to number 800 troops by the fade away of May.

Escalation

In the latest verbal abuse, police said that the adjacent to-Balaka militia attacked Seleka positions to the front concerning Tuesday day in Dekoa, not quite 300km (180 miles) north of Bangui.

They said that the battle escalated following than the Seleka called in reinforcements and went upon for anew four hours.

"Most of the victims were civilians who were hit by stray missiles," a police source told the AFP news agency.

Meanwhile the US ambassador to the UN upon Wednesday urged more retain for African and French troops in CAR ahead the UN peacekeeping vote.

Ambassador Samantha Power - currently in CAR - said that the African peacekeeping mission was in force hard to seize the gap left by the departure of approximately 850 troops from neighbouring Chad and were innate deployed into the areas they to come guarded.

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India election: Voting starts on first key polling day

Millions of Indians have begun voting vis--vis the first massive hours of daylight of the general election pitting the ruling Congress party nearby the main assailant BJP.

Polling is beast held in 91 seats in 14 states, including in the capital Delhi and the key states of Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Orissa.

The nine-phase vote began not far and wide and wide away and wide and wide off from Monday and will conclude as regards 12 May. Votes will be counted regarding 16 May.

More than 814 million Indians are eligible to vote in the polls.

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