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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Ukraineʼs comedian candidate skips presidential debate Leading Ukrainian presidential candidate and actorVolodymyr Zelensky failed to show up to a debate with the incumbent candidate, President Petro Poroshenko (pictured above), on Sunday. The candidates are facing each other in a runoff election, which has seen Zelensky, a professional comedian,take a comfortable leadover Poroshenko. But Zelensky has yet to shed light on his policy positions. "I do not like that a presidential campaign in Ukraine looks like a silent movie," Poroshenko said while standing next to an empty podium bearing Zelenskyʼs name at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv. "I must say: Ukraineʼs fate is in danger." Poroshenko took Zelenskyʼs absence as an opportunity to bolster his image. He sang an altered version of a Ukrainian folk song about a no-show date: "You told me on Sunday — Weʼll go to the debate together / I came, you didnʼt — You tricked me, let me down."

Philippines: Tests confirm death of ISlinked chief Abu Dar Officials in the Philippines on Sunday confirmed the death of Owaida Marohombsar, who went by the nom de guerre of Abu Dar, after DNA tests carried out by US authorities. Marohombsar was one of few leaders to survive a2017 attack on the city of Marawi, where he managed to escaped with large amounts of cash looted during the siege.

Philippines authorities feared he would use the wealth to rebuild the Dawla Islamiya group, an alliance of pro-Islamic State (IS) fighters. · Manila confirmed the Islamist leader as one of four insurgents killed in a clash with the Philippine military in March. · The Philippines hailed the killing as a significant development that would hamper efforts by IS to establish a presence in the region.

87/2019 • 15 APRIL, 2019

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram down across US, Europe, Asia Social media users have been struggling to access their favorite platforms due to site outages

A similar interruption last month that affected millions of people was blamed on a cyberattack.

Roundup cancer case: Monsanto ordered to pay US man $80 million In a blow to German chemical giant Bayer, a jury has ordered subsidiary Monsanto to pay $80 million to a man who said Roundup weed killer caused his cancer. Monsanto is facing hundreds of similar complaints in the US. A US jury has awarded $80 million (€71 million) in damages to a California man who blamed Roundup weed killer for causing his cancer.

The ruling is a blow to German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, whose subsidiary Monsanto makes the herbicide. The trial could pave the way for more cases linking Roundupʼs main ingredi-

ent, glyphosate, to cancer. The jury in San Franciscodecided earlier this monththat Roundup was a "substantial factor" in the 70-year-old plaintiff Edwin Hardemanʼs nonHodgkin lymphoma, finding that Roundup was defectively designed, that Monsanto failed to warn of the herbicideʼs cancer risk and that the company acted negligently. Monsanto has repeatedly pointed to studies showing glyphosate is safe. But the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as a "probable human carcinogen" in 2015.

We need men to talk about periods: Oscar winner Guneet Monga Period. End of Sentence is a documentary

about the deep-rooted stigma attached to menstruation in the village of Hapur in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. For generations, women here did not have access to sanitary pads, leading to health issues and girls dropping out from schools. Directed by award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi, the film is created by The Pad Project, an organization established by a group of students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton. The movie has been produced

by 34-year-old Guneet Monga (pictured above), who was born in Delhi and heads the production company, Sikhya Entertainment. She has been involved in several critically acclaimed Indian movies, including Lunchbox, Gangs of Wasseypur and Masaan, which won the International Jury of Film Critics Prize at Cannes in 2015. Monga is brimming with ambition and confidence after her Oscar victory and hopes the movie will help change mindsets and hard-wired attitudes, especially among males, towards menstruation.

Finland PM admits his party are ʼbiggest losersʼ in election Finlandʼs prime minister Juha Sipila offered congratulations to the opposition after his Center Party suffered heavily at the polls on Sunday.

The outcome would appear to give Social Democratic leader Antti Rinne, a former finance minister, the task of finding coalition partners to form the first left-leaning government in two decades. What do the polls say?

The opposition center-left Social Democratic Party was expected to emerge top, with 18.9% support after about half of the votes were counted.The conservative National Coalition Party, which is in the outgoing center-right governing coalition, was garnering 17.2% of the vote by mid-count.Prime Minister Juha Sipilaʼs Center Party initially looked set to clinch third place with 15.4%.The nationalist True Finns party, which had been tipped for third place, was on about 15%.

Libya death toll rising, says UN At least 121 people have died in clashes betweenrival militias fighting for control of Libyaʼs capital,the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday. The WHO said in a tweet that 561 others had been wounded since commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive earlier this month to take Tripoli, which is currently controlled by a UN-backed government.

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87/2019 • 15 April, 2019

Grief and shock, but ʼstill homeʼ in Christchurch the day after terror attacks Abbas Nazari first arrived in Christchurch as a child refugee from Afghanistan. He and his family were taken in after the international sea rescue standoff in 2001, known as the Tampa Affair. New Zealand gave them and fellow Afghans "a home, a place, a future, hope," he said. Now itʼs where they have also experienced terrorism. Read more: ʼStand together,ʼ urges New Zealandʼs human rights commissioner On Saturday, Nazari turned out to support the dozens of people at an emergency response center set up for friends and relatives of the victims of Fridayʼsdeadly terror attacks on two of the cityʼs mosques. Guarded by armed police, the center, along with a nearby site where people gathered to lay flowers and tributes, were busy locations in a city that was otherwise subdued. Nazari told DW that everyone in Christchurchʼs small, tight-knit Afghan community knew someone who was in the hospital or had died.

He said he came out to help them coordinate relief efforts.

Louis van Gaal on his sacking, his legacy and life in retirement

Will Germany become the worldʼs largest market for medicinal cannabis?

Sri Lanka seeks investment, but

The use of medicinal cannabis has been allowed in Germany for two years now. But because domestic cultivation hasnʼt gotten off the ground yet, the plant has been imported, mainly from Canada. That might change soon.

You donʼt need to be an expert on international trade routes to look at a map and understandthat Sri Lankaʼs location is one of potentially serious economic advantage. The island nation — population 22 million — sits at the southern tip of India, almost as close to the Middle East and the Horn of Africa as it is to South East Asia.

The value of this location has not been lost on its northern neighbor China.Under Xi Jinpingʼs so-called ʼBelt and Road Initiative,ʼ the Chinese government has pumped billions into Sri Lanka in the form of both foreign investment and loans in recent years. This reliance on Chinese money is part of a long-standing Sri Lankan problem. With a major trade deficit, as well as crippling levels of debt, the country needs foreign money. China has rushed to fill the gap more enthusiastically than anyone else. The current Sri Lankan government came to power in 2015, when it replaced former President Mahinda Rajapaksaʼs administration. His government had been unabashedly eager to seek Chinese money, regardless of the costs, and it left the incoming government with a major web of deals — and debt — to untangle.

As Europeʼs biggest cannabis investor conference kicks off in Berlin on Sunday, the most important topic will be the future cultivation of the plant in Germany, according to German Hemp Association (DHV) Chief Executive Georg Wurth. He finds it rather pathetic that there still is no cannabis cultivation in Europeʼs biggest economy. For two years, Germany has allowed cannabis cultivation for medical purposes. But picking suitable

growers hasnʼt been all plain sailing.

A competitive tendering process had to be started from scratch following initial procedural errors. According to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfarM), there will be clarity in a couple of months as to which enterprises will get a license to produce cannabis at the behest of the state. Frankfurt-based entrepreneur Niklas Kouperanis believes that is an unrealistic deadline.

Cats actually understand their own name For many cat lovers itʼs already clear: Garfield, Findus and Simba all know their own name and respond to it.

When Felix is called, Felix actually comes. At least when thereʼs something to eat, or an offer of a cuddle with its owner. And, of course, when the cat just feels like it. Even if most domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) are fiercely independent, the fact that they recognize the name given to them and respond to it is

something assumed to be true by their owners. So far, however, there has been no scientific evidence to show that this is the case. Until now, that is — thanks to Japanese researchers.

Cats can actually distinguish their name from other words. This is what Atsuko Saito from Sophia University in Tokyo and his team found in a study recently published in theScientific Reports journal. Itʼs the first experimental proof that cats can actually understand verbal expressions from humans.

It is almost three years since Louis van Gaal walked into a Wembley news conference and slammed the FA Cup on to the table. The Dutchman had just completed what he regards as his greatest managerial achievement: "Winning a trophy despite having a noose round my neck for six months."

Within minutes of the final whistle of Manchester Unitedʼs victory with 10 men against Crystal Palace, it was reported he would be sacked and replaced by Jose Mourinho. I met Van Gaal in Portugal last week for his first written interview with a British journalist since that day.

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China questions linger

Dutch shipbuilder in dock over North Koreanʼs Polish slave claims The first case in the Netherlands of worker exploitation involving a Dutch company for alleged crimes committed outside the country could be nearing an end in the coming weeks, lawyers said, and if successful may open the door to more such cases. Barbara van Straaten, the lawyer representing a North Korean worker, said Dutch law criminalizes the act of profiting from exploitation. The name of the Dutch shipping company sued by the worker couldnʼt be disclosed for safety reasons, she added. Under the countryʼs antitrafficking law, offenders can be jailed for up to 18 years and face fines of €83,000 ($95,000). The plaintiff claims he was sent to Poland by the Pyongyang regime and forced to work12-hour days for low wages in awful conditions.

The lawyer did not say when this happened.