Paris explosion…!!! At least five people injured after huge blast 'caused by gas cooker' in French capital.

Police sources told local media at least five people were injured.

A building partially collapsed after an explosion in Paris’s 6th arrondissement EPA

A violent explosion has rocked the centre of Paris, destroying part of a building and sending smoke rising over the French capital.

Officials said at least five people were injured in the blast, which blew out windows in a 100m radius and sent debris raining into surrounding streets.

Residents living nearby in the 6th arrondissement were evacuated after the accident, which may have been caused by a gas cooker.

Kem Phetsomphou said he felt the explosion inside the Tour Montparnasse, formerly France’s tallest skyscraper, which overlooks the district. 

'Excessive' regulation and 'sin taxes' make UK the worst place in the EU to be a wine drinker or smoker

The report ranks the UK as the bloc’s third most meddling country - below Finland and Sweden - when it comes to regulating citizens private lives

A report has concluded that Britain is the worst place in the EU to be a smoker and drink wine Getty

Nanny state laws make Britain the worst place in the European Union (EU) to be a wine drinker and a smoker, according to a report which ranks the UK as the bloc’s third most meddling country when it comes to regulating citizens private lives.

“Excessive” regulation and so called “sin taxes” mean that only Finland and Sweden are worse when it comes to intervening in lifestyle freedoms, the 2016 Nanny State Index found.

“The results make depressing reading for those of us who want the government to keep out of our private lives,” said Christopher Snow don, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) which published the report along with the European Policy Information Centre.   

How to Run Business From Home Without Losing Your Sanity.

The main problem of conducting business from home is isolation, broken daily routine and lack of motivation. Here are some tips you can use to conduct your business efficiently.

1. Choose tools for work. It’s the first and foremost thing you have to do. Everything will do – from Excel sheets to complex CRM systems – just make sure you have all the information at hand and don’t forget to update it.

The latest trend is all-in-one collaboration workspaces - Bitrix24 is free and particular popular. Besides Bitrix24, there are, for example, MangoApps, Freedcamp and some other. They substitute multiple tools like Trello or Asana for project management, Slack or Yammer for inner social communication, Dropbox for sharing files, Skype for making calls and provide CRM for maintaining client database.

2. Choose a special workplace at home. You should draw clear line between work and home so that to be able to focus on business. It’ll be good also to change into work clothes.

3. Make more calls. Seriously, you won’t even notice how you become less and less social, especially if you live alone. If you have an alternative: to call or to write a letter, it’s better to make a call (with a written follow-up, of course).

4. Write a plan and always stick to it. Better print it out and have before your eyes. You can use the method of Mark Foster from his book “Do It Tomorrow”: plan all your doings and the approximate required time for them the previous day. If something unplanned turns up, put it off till the next day. Thus, by the end of the day you’ll already have a plan for tomorrow. This will help you to keep yourself together.

5. Track the time you devote to work. You can use Pomodoro timer technique (there are plenty of apps for each smartphone platform) when work process is split into short 25-minute pieces. Or just use your kitchen timer. Always start working the same time and stop working by the end of the day. 

Strong 6.0-magnitude quake hits off Japan coast; no tsunami...!!!

A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off Japan’s southwest coast Friday, the US Geological Survey said, but local authorities said there was no danger of a tsunami. The quake hit at 11:39 am (02:39 GMT) off the coast of Japan’s main Honshu Island, at a location about 350 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, USGS and the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The quake was measured at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers. No damage or injuries were immediately reported though heavy shaking forced some of the country’s bullet trains to temporarily stop running, public broadcaster NHK reported. Japan sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and experiences around 20 percent of the world’s most powerful earthquakes. But rigid building codes and strict enforcement mean even powerful tremors frequently do little damage. A massive undersea quake that hit in March 2011 sent a tsunami barreling into Japan’s northeast coast, leaving 18,500 people dead or missing, and sending several reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in the worst atomic accident in a generation.

Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson hasn’t celebrated birthday post his death?

Paris Jackson is set to celebrate her 18th birthday next week after shunning the occasion since her father king of pop Michael Jackson passed away six years ago. The 17-year-old aspiring singer has refused to mark her annual milestone since Jackson died in June 2009 because she couldn’t face the heartbreaking memories that came with it, but it seems this year could be different as she gears up to turn 18 next week with a lavish bash, reported Radar Online.“Paris has not really celebrated her birthday since her father passed away. She has such fond memories of past birthday celebrations with Michael, so it is really a sensitive time for her,” a source said. Her family, including mother Debbie Rowe and grandmother Katherine Jackson, are keen to pull out all of the stops on April 3 to ensure Paris, the only daughter of Michael, has a birthday to remember. The insider added, “Paris’ family is all coming together to throw her a huge and lavish birthday party for her. As of right now, it will be at the Jackson family estate. Paris has no problems with anyone in her family, so they are all expected to be there.”

Anas obtains African Hero award

The Ohio University African Students' Union (ASU) has awarded ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremyaw Anas, with the African Hero of the year 2016.

The event was held at a colorful ceremony on the school's premises in Athens Ohio, USA.

Established in 1991 to commemorate the release of the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela from prison, the African Hero award honors individuals whose works have impacted positively on the lives of Africans around the world.

The President of OU African Students Union, Madam Saba Zewdu who presented the award to the Hero said the African Students Union had closely followed the works of Mr Anas' and was proud of his achievements

With this Award, Mr Anas has joined the ranks of celebrated Africans such as Professor Francis Nyamnjoh, a Cameroonian scholar, novelist and publisher, Professor Frimpong Boateng, a renowned Heart surgeon from Ghana, Dr. Philistine Onyango from Kenya and Professor Steve Howard, an Africanists Media professor who is also the director of Ohio university's Center for International Studies who have been honored by OU.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Anas Aremyaw Anas who blended his speech with snippets of several of his investigative videos told the packed OU audience of students, Professors and administrators that his style of journalism aims to name, shame and jail culprits involved in wrong doing in the community.

While not faulting the conventional manner in which many journalists in Africa carry out their works of uncovering wrongs in society, the 2016 ASU African Hero winner questioned the essence of simply uncovering a wrong without ensuring that the 'bad guys' are put in jail.

"This is where my style of journalism comes in. I don't just painstakingly blow the lid off bad things by the bad guys but I go the extra mile by collaborating with the Police and other State institutions to ensure that these bad guys are put away in jail. The records are there to show. For instance, my team and I have ensured the arrest and prosecution of some herbalists who were secretly killing children born with some degrees of deformity a in small village in the northern part of Ghana. I did this by pretending to be the parent of a deformed baby who wants his child killed. I built a prosthetic baby and carried it to the shrine of these priests. While getting ready to give a portion of poisonous concoction which could be seen boiling on the fire in the shrine, my team alerted the police who then moved in and arrested them. In Tanzania, i collaborated with the police and blew the cover of some people who were engaged in dealing in the body parts of albinos which they believed had some magical powers. By posing as someone who is willing to offer for sale a prosthetic arm of an Albino I had built, I was able to infiltrate the ranks of these people and successfully gather enough evidence in real time for the police to move in, arrest these guys and send them to court to be jailed."

Although many describe his style of journalism as unconventional, Mr Anas said he is satisfied with what he does as long as it produces the desired results of ridding society of wrong doers.

"I refuse to let anyone dictate to me the tenets of what journalism is about. I define my own journalism according the demands of the community in which I reside and serve. You see, it is very easy for journalists in the West and other areas to be satisfied and focused on things other than what I do. This is because their communities may not be facing similar challenges as what our communities are facing in Africa, hence we can differ in our approach", he reiterated.

Mr Anas' works have earned him several recognitions and awards around the world including being hailed by President Obama as a hard working journalist whose work is worthy of emulation.

Messi is the best in the world - Koeman...

Barcelona legend Ronald Koeman has described Lionel Messi as the best player in the world "by a large margin" ahead of Saturday's Clasico meeting with Real Madrid.

Koeman, who played for Barca between 1989 and 1995, believes Messi's genius marks him out above rivals such as Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Southampton manager also explained why he thinks Barcelona are favourites for Saturday's showdown at Camp Nou due to their 'MSN' strikeforce, with Messi supported by Neymar and Luis Suarez.

"Barca have the best players at the moment," Koeman told Barca TV. "They have the three players up front and their performances are really impressive, but they still have [Sergio] Busquets, [Andres] Iniesta, [Gerard] Pique.

"I think the heart of the Barca style is still those Catalan players, well coached of course by really good coaches. I think it is also important that there is calmness there from the board.

"Suarez - I know him since his time at Ajax. He showed what a great player he was, too good for the Dutch league, so he went to Liverpool. He had a difficult start at Barcelona but he has shown since then that he is a fantastic player.

"Neymar has his qualities. He is still a young player but he is going to explode one day. He is very quick, he is a goalscorer, he's got all the qualities you want in an attacking player.

"Messi is Messi. You can say a thousand things more about him but Messi is the best in the world, by a large margin. He is capable of doing it in a split-second, he is capable of doing amazing things by himself. Obviously, he needs other players as well, to help him and give him the ball.

"Barcelona are the favourites, I think. Madrid, I don't really see them being as strong as they need to be to catch up with Barcelona. Both teams are in the Champions League, but I think in La Liga there is too much difference."

Koeman also reminisced about the Clasico games he remembers as a player, with one match in particular standing out from the rest.

"I've got great memories. The most special game that you can play in, there's always a lot of great rivarly playing at Camp Nou against Madrid - there isn't a bigger game," he added.

"If I had to pick one [Clasico] I'm going to pick, I don't know if you expect this one, but it's the first one. We won 3-1, [I scored] two penalties, one penalty that I had to take again.

"I scored three penalties against Madrid, who else can say that?"