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He said he had been told that some people still needed mattresses, nets and among others things.
Osinbajo said that he would make sure that everything needed by the victims was provided, adding that cow meat would also be provided to complement the food stuffs available.
He assured the victims that they would be properly taken care of and resettled at their respective homes.
There has been a “dramatic increase” in the number of H-1B visas being held up, a coalition of American employers representing top IT companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft has said and alleged that the US immigration agency was “acting outside” of its own regulations.
The H1B visa, popular among Indian IT firms and professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US firms to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
“We have observed three changes in H-1B adjudication practices under the current administration that seem to permeate most of the increased H-1B adjudication inconsistencies experienced by employers,” Compete America said in a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Francis Cissna.
Expressing concerns over legal issues regarding the recent changes in adjudication standards for H-1B non-immigrant visa petitions at USCIS, the coalition — Compete America — said the agency’s current approach to H-1B adjudications cannot be anticipated by either the statutory or regulatory text.
Compete America, a coalition of affected US firms, alleged that the USCIS appears to be “acting outside of its own regulations and the controlling statute” by requiring petitioners to comply with the agency’s current view that a comparatively entry-level job, and corresponding wage level, cannot be a specialty occupation.
Co-founder of a web design agency, Huemor, working with brands like Live Nation, Geico, Revlon and NBC.
If you build or manage e-commerce stores, you’re probably aware that mobile internet use is increasing at a rapid rate. But data clearly shows a higher conversion rate among "traditional" (aka desktop) web users — more than triple that of smartphone browsers.
So, that begs the question: How do we improve the average e-commerce conversion rates for smartphones?
Computing power on mobile devices is not as strong as on traditional platforms.
Wireless connectivity for many is unreliable at best.
The platform limits how much space you have to work with.
Due to how rapidly devices and operating systems change, there is a much wider net that defines a mobile user.
Mobile users are typically experiencing more than one instance of media at any given time. These distractions may encourage browsing rather than buying.
My point is not to knock smart phone manufacturers; they’re developing products that have literally revolutionized how modern society works. That being said, there seems to be a pretty big lack of standardization. This causes a huge problem for e-commerce website developers to work around.
The solution is less about UI hacks and tricks than it is about addressing the root causes that impede conversions. How do store owners and store creators make improvements which in turn improve conversion rates?
1. Prioritize website performance above all else.
The biggest hindrance for mobile conversions is website performance. Slow loading, laggy mobile experiences kill the user’s drive to engage with the website.
What often goes overlooked, however, are the amount of requests a website must make in order to fully render the page. To explain it simply, each request requires the session to loop, drawing on the server and the ISP. Each loop takes time, that time can add up quickly.
This problem is often more difficult to fix, as all on-page assets such as images, video, scripts and style sheets create these loops. It’s easy for e-commerce websites to get out of control with these types of assets; after all, your average e-commerce website usually requires many third party tools (shipping, fulfillment, marketing etc.) to run smoothly. It’s also common that over time, this issue becomes exaggerated as things get tacked onto the platform.
Careful design and development planning can help combat these issues by prioritizing doing more with less from the get-go. Regular audits of the website's performance should be made over time to ensure that these things are in line and the website is as lean as possible.
2. Optimize your website for browsing.
Most mobile users will visit your website with a passive mindset for purchasing. They may be on the move and not have the time to invest in making a purchase within that moment, but they’re interested in what you have to offer.
Most mobile websites default to a single-column view of products. This optimizes the size of the product's thumbnail photo, but diminishes the ability to quickly browse through various products. We’ve found that displaying products in two columns rather than one actually increases average session durations overall for our customers.
Also, keeping within the mindset of a passive customer, the ability for them to save products and carts easily and effectively on mobile is important. They might find a few things they like on their initial pass through but don’t have the time or availability to make the purchase on the spot. A persistent cart, and better yet an e-mail notification for cart abandonment, can go a long way for catching this customer when they do have the availability to make their purchase.
3. Be diligent with providing clear tactile response.
“Tactile response” is a fancy way of saying every action has a reaction. In e-commerce, tactile response ensures that users are being rewarded for their actions on the website. It also has proven to improve order accuracy, in my experience. Tactile response is especially important when it comes to interacting with the checkout process.
If someone adds something to their cart, they need an obvious visual cue to ensure that a product has been added successfully. If someone completes form fields, there should be visual indicators that those fields are valid. Lastly, if someone submits their order, there should be clear indication that order has been received.
This approach is important for all modes of shopping (traditional, tablet and mobile) but we find it even more important for mobile conversions where you're dealing with an ecosystem that’s limited by poor connectivity. Sometimes an action might fail due to network connection dropping momentarily. Strong tactile cues make it clear for the user when that happens and if they should try to submit their order again.
4. Consider updating your store's platform.
In the last 10 years many improvements have been made to improve how e-commerce platforms perform. Modern templating systems provide structural advantages to online stores and improve their benchmarks.
If your store was built more than five years ago, it’s most likely worthwhile to consider a re-build. A cleanly built website on a modern platform will most likely have dramatic performance improvements over a legacy system. Since page speed is such a huge factor in buying decisions, this alone could create a solid increase in conversion rates for your store.
(Reuters) - Panasonic Corp <6752.T> plans to dramatically cut back on chipmaking, slashing the business's 14,000-strong workforce by half and possibly selling some plants, the Nikkei said.
Japanese companies are spinning off their chipmaking operations as profit margins shrink, mainly due to stiff competition from South Korea, the paper said.
The move underlines Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga's determination to weed out weak operations as he focuses on higher-margin products to end years of losses at the consumer electronics conglomerate.
Panasonic has chip production plants in Japan's Toyama and Niigata prefectures, as well as in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, the Nikkei said.
The job cut will likely affect mainly foreign plants, the paper said.
Expenses resulting from the workforce reduction are expected to reach 50 billion yen ($514 million) for the year ending March, the paper said, adding the company expects to soften the impact of this through improved earnings.
Panasonic's chipmaking business reported an operating loss of 184 billion yen in fiscal 2012, the paper said.
The company is in talks to sell some plants to Israeli chip manufacturer TowerJazz , the business daily said.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Osaka-based Panasonic will pull out of its plasma TV business by the end of the financial year.
Panasonic agreed last month to sell the healthcare business to U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co in a $1.67 billion deal.
I was spending some time with a good college friend of mine. We were screwing around, debating where to head that night after one of those unexpected, nearly unwelcome humid spring afternoons. I picked up a copy of a large book from the apartment table. World War II for Kids. My friend, an elementary-schoolteacher-in-training, had picked up the book for an assignment that dealt with how to teach the war to young students.
I playfully launched in to a mock exam, using the small images of each of the war’s principals from the front cover. “Okay, who’s this?” I demanded, pointing to the visage of Winston Churchill.
From my friend, silence. And a blank stare. ”Uh, alright,” I hesitated unevenly, “how about him?” I pointed to Stalin.
“Oh, Franklin Roosevelt, I think,” offered my friend earnestly.
Mental panic was setting in. “And this?” I pointed to Hirohito.
Our impromptu exam ended with howls of laughter from my chair, and a red face in the other.
But here’s the thing: my friend is smart. An “A” student, attending a respected university.
For all the talk about lesson planning, creative learning, compassionate engagement, etc., from the education reform crowd, how often is it asked: Do our teachers know their subjects?
If not, it’ll show. The students will immediately recognize it. No amount of lesson planning can succeed in engaging students on a subject when they notice that not even their teacher was curious enough to learn about it.
Lesson planning and presentation are a core focus of the elementary-ed instruction my college friend receives, all while the specific names — and here, literally, the faces — of the subject are neglected.
Rarely has the vituperative slur ”style over substance” been made so real.
San Mateo County officials are alerting residents of a mountain lion sighting Thursday night in Portola Valley.
The cat was spotted at about 9 p.m. in the 700 block of Wayside Road and reported to the Sheriff's Office Friday morning.
County officials advise residents not to approach mountain lions and say the animals typically avoid confrontation. Residents are also advised to avoid hiking or jogging during dawn, dusk and at night, when mountain lions are most active, and to keep a close watch on small children.
“There is a cause for rejoicing here”, although “you may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials” (1 Pet 1:6). These words of the Apostle remind us of something essential. Our vocation is to be lived in joy.
This beautiful Cathedral of Saint Patrick, built up over many years through the sacrifices of many men and women, can serve as a symbol of the work of generations of American priests and religious, and lay faithful who helped build up the Church in the United States. In the field of education alone, how many priests and religious in this country played a central role, assisting parents in handing on to their children the food that nourishes them for life! Many did so at the cost of extraordinary sacrifice and with heroic charity. I think for example of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, who founded the first free Catholic school for girls in America, or Saint John Neumann, the founder of the first system of Catholic education in the United States.
This evening, my brothers and sisters, I have come to join you in prayer that our vocations will continue to build up the great edifice of God’s Kingdom in this country. I know that, as a presbyterate in the midst of God’s people, you suffered greatly in the not distant past by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members... In the words of the Book of Revelation, I know well that you “have come forth from the great tribulation” (Rev 7:14). I accompany you at this time of pain and difficulty, and I thank God for your faithful service to his people. In the hope of helping you to persevere on the path of fidelity to Jesus Christ, I would like to offer two brief reflections.
The first concerns the spirit of gratitude. The joy of men and women who love God attracts others to him; priests and religious are called to find and radiate lasting satisfaction in their vocation. Joy springs from a grateful heart. Truly, we have received much, so many graces, so many blessings, and we rejoice in this. It will do us good to think back on our lives with the grace of remembrance. Remembrance of when we were first called, remembrance of the road travelled, remembrance of graces received... and, above all, remembrance of our encounter with Jesus Christ so often along the way. Remembrance of the amazement which our encounter with Jesus Christ awakens in our hearts. To seek the grace of remembrance so as to grow in the spirit of gratitude. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves: are we good at counting our blessings?
A second area is the spirit of hard work. A grateful heart is spontaneously impelled to serve the Lord and to find expression in a life of commitment to our work. Once we come to realize how much God has given us, a life of self-sacrifice, of working for him and for others, becomes a privileged way of responding to his great love.
Yet, if we are honest, we know how easily this spirit of generous self-sacrifice can be dampened. There are a couple of ways that this can happen; both are examples of that “spiritual worldliness” which weakens our commitment to serve and diminishes the wonder of our first encounter with Christ.
unimportant! We have been entrusted with a great responsibility, and God’s people rightly expect accountability from us. But the true worth of our apostolate is measured by the value it has in God’s eyes. To see and evaluate things from God’s perspective calls for constant conversion in the first days and years of our vocation and, need I say, great humility. The cross shows us a different way of measuring success. Ours is to plant the seeds: God sees to the fruits of our labors. And if at times our efforts and works seem to fail and produce no fruit, we need to remember that we are followers of Jesus... and his life, humanly speaking, ended in failure, the failure of the cross.
Another danger comes when we become jealous of our free time, when we think that surrounding ourselves with worldly comforts will help us serve better. The problem with this reasoning is that it can blunt the power of God’s daily call to conversion, to encounter with him. Slowly but surely, it diminishes our spirit of sacrifice, renunciation and hard work. It also alienates people who suffer material poverty and are forced to make greater sacrifices than ourselves. Rest is needed, as are moments of leisure and self-enrichment, but we need to learn how to rest in a way that deepens our desire to serve with generosity. Closeness to the poor, the refugee, the immigrant, the sick, the exploited, the elderly living alone, prisoners and all God’s other poor, will teach us a different way of resting, one which is more Christian and generous.
Gratitude and hard work: these are two pillars of the spiritual life which I have wanted to share with you this evening. I thank you for prayers and work, and the daily sacrifices you make in the various areas of your apostolate. Many of these are known only to God, but they bear rich fruit for the life of the Church. In a special way I would like to express my esteem and gratitude to the religious women of the United States. What would the Church be without you? Women of strength, fighters, with that spirit of courage which puts you in the front lines in the proclamation of the Gospel. To you, religious women, sisters and mothers of this people, I wish to say “thank you”, a big thank you... and to tell you that I love you very much.
I know that many of you are in the front lines in meeting the challenges of adapting to an evolving pastoral landscape. Whatever difficulties and trials you face, I ask you, like Saint Peter, to be at peace and to respond to them as Christ did: he thanked the Father, took up his cross and looked forward!
Dear brothers and sisters, in a few moments we will sing the Magnificat. Let us commend to Our Lady the work we have been entrusted to do; let us join her in thanking God for the great things he has done, and for the great things he will continue to do in us and in those whom we have the privilege to serve.
6 against the allegedly illegal cutting of resin trees by forest concession companies.
from further encroachment by forest concessionaires Chenda Plywood and Everbright.
I depend on to support my family and to send my children to school," Sem said.
the rest [of my trees]."
them of being manipulated by "politicians and resin smugglers".
one resin tree which people haven't agreed to sell," he said.
honoring compensation agreements negotiated with villagers for the cut trees.
Attempts by the Post to contact Everbright for comment were unsuccessful.
with the affected resin farmers.
that his department would investigate the villagers' complaints.
FCMU spokesmen were aware of the resin tree dispute.
May 7 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index futures rose on Monday, helped by oil prices that touched their highest levels since late-2014 on the back of Venezuela’s deepening economic crisis.
June futures on the S&P TSX index were up 0.06 percent at 7:15 a.m. ET.
No major economic indicators are scheduled for release.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX rose 107.93 points, or 0.69 percent, to 15729.4 on Friday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average e-mini futures were up 0.36 percent at 7:15 a.m. ET, while S&P 500 e-mini futures were up 0.41 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures were up 0.65 percent.
Shareholders of Crescent Point Energy Corp voted to elect the Canadian energy producer’s full slate of directors after a contentious battle with activist investor Cation Capital, Crescent spokeswoman Andrée Morier said on Friday.
Washington, DC - When Rose Knuckles Bull came to the United States in 1999, her home country of Liberia was beginning to experience its second civil war.
The first, which lasted from 1989 through 1996, killed some 200,000 people and displaced about half the population. The second war ended in 2003, but both conflicts created a devastating humanitarian situation that further complicated matters when Ebola broke out in 2014.
After coming to the US on a visitor's visa, Knuckles Bull was given Temporary Protective Status (TPS) under a programme that provides protections to individuals unable to return to their home countries usually due to wars or natural disasters. She was later given Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) protections, which gave Liberians the right to work and live in the US, but no path to citizenship.
In March 2018, US President Donald Trump said he was ending DED, giving an estimated 4,000 Liberians in the US a year - until March 31, 2019 - to either leave the US on their own and or risk deportation.
On Thursday, as the deadline loomed, and amid increased pressure by politicians, lawyers and the Liberian community, the White House announced it was extending the "wind-down period" for the expiration of DED for another year.
"Upon further reflection and review, I have decided that is is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to extend the wind-down period for an additional 12 months ... The overall situation in West Africa remains concerning and Liberia is an important regional partner for the United States," Trump said in a statement announcing the extension.
"The reintegration of DED beneficiaries into Liberian civil and political life will be a complex task, and an unsuccessful transition could strain United States-Liberia relations and undermine Liberia's post-civil war strides toward democracy and political stability," the president added.
Knuckles Bull, who lives in New York, expressed cautious optimism upon hearing about the extension. She told Al Jazeera the rollercoaster of emotions and the financial strain of having to reapply several times for work authorisation has created repeated stress over the last 20 years.
"[Trump] is just giving us time to be here, he's not absorbing us into the system," she said by telephone.
Other individuals and groups that have been organising over the past year to pressure the Trump administration to extend the deadline declared victory, but said a permanent solution needed to be found.
Yatta Kiazolu, a Liberian DED recipient who recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that "we are still in the fight for a permanent solution because we still have lives after March 31st, 2020".
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison led a coalition of state lawyers in filing a brief on Monday supporting DED recipients.
"Liberians are people who have been here since the war, they have grown up here, grown old here, had children here. To rip them apart [from their families] is not only immoral, but also illegal," Ellison told Al Jazeera.
After the announcement, Ellison tweeted that Trump's decision was good news, but "only comprehensive immigration reform will fix this for folks long-term".