DEPARTMENT OF STATE: Office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Professional Standards Board

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Professional Standards Board

Telangana will become the second Congress-ruled state after Karnataka to undertake caste census - an exercise that would continue from November 6 to November 30.

Read the in depth Review of Hisense 55 inches Ultra HD 4K Smart LED TV(55A71F) TV. Know detailed info about Hisense 55 inches Ultra HD 4K Smart LED TV(55A71F) configuration, design and performance quality along with pros & cons, Digit rating, verdict based on user opinions/feedback.

Atlas Biomed's website is no longer active and the phone number listed is dead as well.

Owlet, a connected-baby care company raised a $24 million Series B investment from Trilogy Equity Partners, with participation from existing investors, including Eclipse Ventures, Broadway Angels, and Enfield Ventures, and the addition Pelion Venture Partners.

Owlet’s core product is a baby sock that contains a smart sensor. The sensor monitors pulse oximetry, a technology used in hospitals to measure an infant's heart rate and blood oxygen levels. The vital signs are communicated to parents’ smartphone via Bluetooth connection. The product retails for $299 and parents can also choose from monthly payment plans.

Other IoT-health startups using sensors to monitor vital signs include Aifloo, a company selling wrist-bands for elders and Air by Propeller, a smart health company that provides an API to predict local asthma conditions.

A complete product package of Owlet monitor includes three fabric socks, smart sock sensor, a base station (which rings an alarm if a baby’s vital signs are abnormal), and charging cords.

Before the company raised the latest round, it closed a $15 million Series B round in late 2016. The recent investment brought Owlet’s total equity funding to $46M. Owlet plans to use the growth capital to launch more baby care products.

Vesper, the maker of piezoelectric sensors used in microphone production and winner of CES Innovation Award 2018 raised a $23M Series B round. American Family Ventures led the investment with participation from Accomplice, Amazon Alexa Fund, Baidu, Bose Ventures, Hyperplane, Sands Capital, Shure, Synaptics, ZZ Capital and some undisclosed investors.

Vesper’s innovative sensors can be used in consumer electronics like TV remote controls, smart speakers, smartphones, intelligent sensor nodes, and hearables. The company will use the funding proceeds to scale-up its functions like mass production of its microphones and support expanded research and development, hiring, and establishing international sales offices.

The main product of Vesper is VM1000, a low noise, high range,single-ended analog output piezoelectric MEMS microphone. It consists of a piezoelectric sensor and circuitry to buffer and amplify the output.

The hot-selling product of Vesper is VM1010 with ZeroPower Listening which is the first MEMS microphone that enables voice activation to battery-powered consumer devices.

The unique selling point of Vesper’s products is they are built to operate in rugged environments that have dust and moisture.

"Vesper's ZeroPower Listening capabilities coupled with its ability to withstand water, dust, oil, and particulate contaminants enables users that have never before been possible," said Katelyn Johnson, principal of American Family Ventures. "We are excited about Vesper's quest to transform our connected world, including IoT devices."

Other recent funding news include $24 raised by sensor-based baby sock maker Owlet, IFTTT banks $24M from Salesforce to scale its IoT Enterprise offering, and Intel sells its Wind River Software to TPG.

Siemens Building Technologies division announced it will acquire Enlighted Inc., a smart IoT building technology provider. The transaction is expected to close in Q3’18.

Enlighted Inc.’s core element is an advanced lighting control application. It is based on a patented, software-defined smart sensor that collects and monitors real-time occupancy, light levels, temperatures and energy usage.

The sensor can gauge temperature, light level, motion, energy, and has Bluetooth connectivity.

The Enlighted system works by collecting temperature, light and motion data via its smart sensors. A gateway device carries the information to Energy Manager, a secure browser-based interface to create profiles and adjust settings of the entire Enlighted Advanced Lighting Control System. The Energy manager operates as an analytics device.

The whole system consists of multi-function sensors, distributed computing, a network, and software applications run by Enlighted Inc.

Enlighted Inc.’s main target market is commercial real estate. Key use cases of its intelligent Lighting Control System are energy efficiency, controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and building utilization reports.

Use the Postscapes 'Connected Products Framework' to understand the smart home and buildings eco-system.

[SAPS] - A former company Director (57) is expected to appear in the Thabamoopo Magistrates Court in Lebowakgomo on 11 November 2024 for allegedly defrauding a pensioner an amount of R378 000.00 in the name of business.

[Daily Maverick] Office of the Chief Justice reveals Constitutional Court has been unable to sit because of unreliable water supply. This article is free to read.Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.Unlike our competitors, we don't force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.Create your free account or sign in FAQ | Contact Us Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us: You want to receive First Thing, our flagship daily newsletter. Opt

The automotive industry is currently on the cusp of a radical evolution, steering towards a future where cars are not just vehicles but sophisticated, software-defined vehicles (SDV). This shift is marked by an increased reliance on automation and a significant increase in the use of sensors to improve safety and reliability. However, the increasing number of sensors has led to higher compute demands and poses challenges in managing a wide variety of data. The traditional method of using separate processors to manage each sensor's data is becoming obsolete. The current trends necessitate a unified processing system that can deal with multimodal sensor data, utilizing traditional Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and AI-driven algorithms. This approach allows for more efficient and reliable sensor fusion, significantly enhancing vehicle perception. Developers often face difficulties adhering to stringent power, performance, area, and cost (PPAC) and timing constraints while designing automotive SoCs.

Cadence, with its groundbreaking products and AI-powered processors, is enabling designers and automotive manufacturers to meet the future sensor fusion demands within the automotive sector. At the recent CadenceLive Silicon Valley 2024, Amol Borkar, product marketing director at Cadence, showcased the company's dedication and forward-thinking solutions in a captivating presentation titled "Addressing Tomorrow’s Sensor Fusion Needs in Automotive Computing with Cadence." This blog aims to encapsulate the pivotal takeaways from the presentation. If you missed the chance to watch this presentation live, please click here to watch it.

Significant Trends in the Automotive Market – Industry Landscape

We are witnessing a revolution in automotive technology. Innovations like occupant and driver monitoring systems (OMS, DMS), 4D radar imaging, LiDAR technology, and 360-degree view are pushing the boundaries of what's possible, leading us into an era of remarkable autonomy levels—ranging from no feet or hands required to eventually no eyes needed on the road.

Sensor Fusion and Increasing Processing Demands—Sensor fusion effectively integrates data from different sensors to help vehicles understand their surroundings better. Its main benefit is in overcoming the limitations of individual sensors. For example, cameras provide detailed visual information but struggle in low-light or lousy weather. On the other hand, radar is excellent at detecting objects in these conditions but lacks the detail that cameras provide. By combining the data from multiple sensors, automotive computing can take advantage of their strengths while compensating for their weaknesses, resulting in a more reliable and robust system overall.

One thing to note is that the increased number of sensors produces various data types, leading to more pre-processing.

On-Device Processing—As the industry moves towards autonomy, there is an increasing need for on-device data processing instead of cloud computing to enable vehicles to make informed decisions. Embracing on-device processing is a significant advancement for facilitating real-time decisions and avoiding round-trip latency.

AI Adoption—AI has become integral to automotive applications, driving safety, efficiency, and user experience advancements. AI models offer superior performance and adaptability, making future-proofing a crucial consideration for automotive manufacturers. AI significantly enhances sensor fusion algorithms, offering scalability and adaptability beyond traditional rule-based approaches. Neural networks enable various fusion techniques, such as early fusion, late fusion, and mid-fusion, to optimize the integration and processing of sensor data.

Future Sensor Fusion Needs

Automotive architectures are continually evolving. With current trends and AI integration into radar and sensor fusion applications, SoCs should be modular, flexible, and programmable to meet market demands.

Heterogeneous Architecture- Today's vehicles are loaded with various sensors, each with a unique processing requirement. Running the application on the most suitable processor is essential to achieve the best PPA. To meet such requirements, modern automotive solutions require a heterogeneous compute approach, integrating domain-specific digital signal processors (DSPs), neural processing units (NPUs), central processing unit (CPU) clusters, graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters, and hardware accelerator blocks. A balanced heterogeneous architecture gives the best PPA solution.

Flexibility and Programmability- The industry has come a long way from using computer vision algorithms such as HOG (Histogram Oriented Gradient) to detect people and objects, HAR classifier to detect faces, etc., to CNN and LSTM-based AI to Transformer models and graphical neural networks (GNN). AI has evolved tremendously over the last ten years and continues to evolve. To keep up with the evolving rate of AI, SoC design must be flexible and programmable for updates if needed in the future.

Addressing the Sensor Fusion Needs with Cadence

Cadence offers a complete suite of hardware and software products to address the increasing compute requirements in automotive. The comprehensive portfolio of Tensilica products built on the robust 32-bit RISC architecture caters to various automotive CPU and AI needs. What makes them particularly appealing is their scalability, flexibility, and configurability, offering many options to meet diverse needs.

The Xtensa family of products offers high-quality, power-efficient CPUs. Tensilica family also includes AI processors like Neo NPUs for the best power, performance, and area (PPA) for AI inference on devices or more extensive applications. Cadence also offers domain-specific products for DSPs such as HIFI DSPs, specialized DSPs and accelerators for radar and vision-based processing, and a general-purpose family of products for floating point applications.

The ConnX family offers a wide range of DSPs, from compact and low-power to high-performance, optimized for radar, lidar, and communications applications in ADAS, autonomous driving, V2X, 5G/LTE/4G, wireless communications, drones, and robotics. Tensilica's ISO26262 certification ensures compliance with automotive safety standards, making it a trusted partner for advanced automotive solutions. The Cadence NeuroWeave Software Development Kit (SDK) provides customers with a uniform, scalable, and configurable ML interface and tooling that significantly improves time to market and better prepares them for a continuously evolving AI market. Cadence Tensilica offers an entire ecosystem of software frameworks and compilers for all programming styles.

Tensilica's comprehensive software stack supports programming for DSPs, NPUs, and accelerators using C++, OpenCL, Halide, and various neural network approaches. Middleware libraries facilitate applications such as SLAM, radar processing, and Eigen libraries, providing robust support for automotive software development.

Conclusion

Cadence’s Tensilica products offer a development toolchain and various IPs tailored for the automotive industry, covering audio, vision, radar, unified DSPs, and NPUs. With ISO certification and a robust partner ecosystem, Tensilica solutions are designed to meet the future needs of automotive computing, ensuring safety, efficiency, and innovation.

Learn More

• Cadence Automotive Solutions
• Cadence Automotive IP
• Sensor Fusion and ADAS in TSMC Automotive Processes
• Revolution on the Road: How Cadence is Driving the Future of Automotive Design!
• Taming Design Complexity in Chiplet-Based Automotive Electronics
• UCIe and Automotive Electronics: Pioneering the Chiplet Revolution

Today's high-performance computing systems often require the designer to instantiate multiple CPU or DSP cores in their subsystem. However, the performance gained by using multiple CPUs comes with additional programming complexity, especially when accessing shared memory data structures and hardware peripherals. CPU cores need to access shared data in an atomic fashion in a multi-core environment. Locking is the most basic requirement for data sharing. A core takes the lock, accesses the shared data structure, and releases the lock. While one core has the lock, other cores are disallowed from accessing the same data structure. Typically, locking is implemented using an atomic read-modify-write bus transaction on a variable allocated in an uncached memory.

This blog shares the AXI4 locking mechanism when implementing an Xtensa LX-based multi-core system on a Xilinx FPGA platform. It uses a dual-core design mapped to a KC705 platform as an example.

Exclusive Access to Accomplish Locking

The Xtensa AXI4 manager provides atomic access using the AXI4 atomic access mechanism. While Xtensa's AXI manager interface generates an exclusive transaction, the subordinate's interface is also expected to support exclusive access, i.e., AXI monitoring. Xilinx BRAM controller's AXI subordinate interface does not support exclusive access, i.e., AXI monitoring: AXI Feature Adoption in Xilinx FPGAs.

Leveraging Xtensa AXI4 Subordinate Exclusive Access

The Xtensa LX AXI subordinate interface supports exclusive access. One approach is to utilize this support and allocate locks in one of the core's local data memories. Ensure that the number of external exclusive managers is configured, typically to the number of cores (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Note that the Xtensa NX AXI subordinate interface does not support exclusive access. For an Xtensa NX design, shared memory with AXI monitoring is required.

In Figure 2, the AXI_crossbar#2 (block in green) routes core#0's manager AXI access (blue connection) to both core's local memories. Core#1's manager AXI (yellow connection) can also access both core's local memories. Locks can be allocated in either core's local data memory.

In-Bound Access on Subordinate Interface

On inbound access, the Xtensa AXI subordinate interface expects a local memory address, i.e., an external entity needs to present the same address as the core would use to access local memory in its 4GB address space. AXI address remap IP (block in pink) translates the AXI system address to each core's local address. For example, assuming locks are allocated in core#0's local memory, core#1 generates an AXI exclusive to access a lock allocated in core#0's local memory (yellow connection). AXI_crossbar#2 forwards transaction to M03_AXI port (green connection). AXI_address_remap#1 translates the AXI system address to the local memory address before presenting it to core#0's AXI subordinate interface (pink connection).

It is possible to configure cores with disjoint local data memory addresses and avoid the need for an address remap IP block. But then it will be a heterogeneous multi-core design with a multi-image build. An address remap IP is required to keep things simple, i.e., a homogeneous multi-core with a single image build. A single image uses a single memory map. Therefore, both cores must have the same view of a lock, i.e., the lock's AXI bus address must be the same for both.

Figure 2

AXI ID Width

Note Xtensa AXI manager interface ID width=4 bits. Xtensa's AXI subordinate interface ID width=12 bits. So, you must configure AXI crossbar#2 and AXI address remap AXI ID width higher than 4. AXI IDs on a manager port are not globally defined; thus, an AXI crossbar with multiple manager ports will internally prefix the manager port index to the ID and provide this concatenated ID to the subordinate device. On return of the transaction to its manager port of origin, this ID prefix will be used to locate the manager port, and the prefix will be truncated. Therefore, the subordinate port ID is wider in bits than the manager port ID. Figure 3 shows the Xilinx crossbar IP AXI ID width configuration.

Figure 3

Software Tools Support

Cadence tools provide a way to place locks at a specific location. For more details, please refer to Cadence's Linker Support Packages (LSP) Reference Manual for Xtensa SDK. .xtos.lock(green) resides in core#0's local memory and holds user-defined and C library locks. The lock segment memory attribute is defined as shared inner (cyan) so that L32EX and S32EX instructions generate an exclusive transaction on an AXI bus. See Figure 4. The stack and per-core Xtos and C library contexts are allocated in local data memory (yellow).

…………..LSP memory map………….
BEGIN dram0
0x40000000: dataRam : dram0 : 0x8000 : writable ;
dram0_0 : C : 0x40000400 - 0x40007fff : STACK : .dram0.rodata .clib.percpu.data .rtos.percpu.data .dram0.data .clib.percpu.bss .rtos.percpu.bss .dram0.bss;
END dram0
…………………
BEGIN sysViewDataRam0
0xA0100000: system : sysViewDataRam0 : 0x8000 : writable, uncached, shared_inner;
lockRam_0 : C : 0xA0100000 - 0xA01003ff : .xtos.lock;
END sysViewDataRam0
…………..

Figure 4

Please visit the Cadence support site for more information on emulating Xtensa cores on FPGAs.

I have a 2-dimensional input in my design - input [2:0] data_in [15:0]. After synthesis with genus, I got a netlist where the inputs are like data[15], data[14],...,data[0]. And furthermore it has definitions like input [2:0] data[15], .... So how can I define the pin locations of each of the bits for this input? Can I define data[15]'s inner bits like data[15][0]? Is it possible to define this with def files?

Hello,

I would like to create a button for my form that prompts the user to click on a cellview and draw a rectangle bounding box, exactly like the one used in the Area and Density Calculator. Can someone please help me with this?

Thanks!

Beto

A training webinar on Microwave Office will be given June 27, 2023. The emphasis will be on EM simulation.(read more)

The increase in compute and data-intensive applications and the need for lower power consumption have resulted in a rapidly growing number of Arm-based devices in various market segments; this requires fast time to market (TTM) and support for off-t...(read more)

Hello Folks,

Problem statement first: How does one properly setup tensorflow for running on a DSVM using a remote Docker environment? Can this be done in aml_config/*.runconfig?

I receive the following message and I would like to be able to utilize the increased speeds of the extended FMA operations.

tensorflow/core/platform/cpu_feature_guard.cc:140] Your CPU supports instructions that this TensorFlow binary was not compiled to use: AVX2 FMA

Background: I utilize a local docker environment managed through Azure ML Workbench for initial testing and code validation so that I'm not running an expensive DSVM constantly. Once I assess that my code is to my liking, I then run it on a remote docker instance on an Azure DSVM.

I want a consistent conda environment across my compute environments, so this works out extremely well. However, I cannot figure out how to control the tensorflow build to optimize for the hardware at hand (i.e. my local docker on macOS vs. remote docker on Ubuntu DSVM)

I want to download Xtensa C/C++ Compiler (XCC) . I dont know where to download. Please help me.

Hi 

I have a Xtensa compiler issue that the compilation for switch case would be optimized in some patterns and leads to unexpected result. I cross-checked the assembly code and found that such compiler optimization seems to be similar to the tree-switch-conversion feature in GCC compiler

• https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-9.1.0/gcc/Optimize-Options.html
  -ftree-switch-conversion
      Perform conversion of simple initializations in a switch to initializations from a scalar array. This flag is enabled by default at -O2 and highe

Unfortunately I don't find any similar compiler option(like -fno-tree-switch-conversion) in Xtensa compiler(XCC) to enable/disable such feature and such feature seems like enabled in XCC by default even if I'm using -O0 for the least optimization.

I'm wondering if there's any possible solution to permanently disable such feature in XCC?

PS: The release version of XCC compiler I'm using is RD-2012.5

Thanks!

Hi,

I'm looking to download Tensilica SDK for evaluation, but I can't get past the registration form:

Designers have long recognized the need to analyze the reliability of ICs. Two commonly used approaches for performing reliability analysis include calculating the change in device degradation and relying on safe operating checks in circuit simulators. 

With the advent of the ever-increasing use of ICs in mission-critical applications, the need for reliable reliability analysis has become of paramount importance. Over the years, you have been using reliability analysis in Virtuoso ADE Assembler and Virtuoso ADE Explorer to measure and review aging effects, such as device characteristic degradations, model parameter changes, self-heating effects, and so on.

Reliability analysis can be performed using two modes: Spectre native and RelXpert. The reliability analysis analyzes the effect of time on circuit performance drift and predicts the reliability of designs in terms of performance. In ADE Assembler, you can run the reliability simulation for fresh test (when time is zero), stress test (to generate degradation data), and aged test (at specific intervals, such as one year, three years, or 10 years). In the stress test, extreme environmental conditions are used to stress devices before aging analysis.

The following figure shows the reliability simulation flow.

The Reliability Options form has the following four tabs: 

• Basic: Enables you to specify analysis type, aging options, start and stop time of reliability simulation, and options related to device masking, degradation ratio, and lifetime calculation. 

• Modeling: Enables you to choose the modeling type you want to use during reliability simulation. 

• Degradation: Enables you to specify the options to print device and subcircuit degradation information into a .bt0 file. 

• Output: Enables you to specify the degradation reports to be generated and methods to filter degradation results in the reports.

While the Basic and the Output tabs are used by design engineers, the Modeling and the Degradation tabs are primarily used by model developers.

Reviewing degradation reports in text or XML formats can be a tiresome exercise because degradation data can be large and can contain a large number of instances due to advanced technology nodes and post-layout simulations. For you to work effectively and interactively with these reports, the new reliability report is based on the SQLite database, which adds the benefit of improved performance and capabilities of sorting and filtering reliability data using SQLite operators.

As they say, watching this in action might help you more than reading about it, so please take a look at our Training Bytes video channel, which offers many helpful videos on how to run Reliability Analysis in Virtuoso Studio.

All the related videos are linked together in a channel so that you can easily access and watch as many as you like.

Reliability Analysis in Virtuoso Studio

Want to Learn More?

For lab instructions and a downloadable design, enroll for the online training courses of your interest on

Reliability Analysis in Virtuoso Studio vIC23.1 (Online)

 Training is also available as "Blended" or "live" class.

Digital Badge Available

You can become Cadence Certified once you complete the course (s) and share your knowledge and certifications on social media channels. Go straight to the course exam at the Learning and Support Portal.

Note: Some of the above links are accessible only to Cadence customers who have a valid login ID for the Cadence Learning and Support Portal.

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If you have questions about courses, schedules, online, public, or live onsite training, reach out to us at Cadence Training.

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About Knowledge Booster Training Bytes

Knowledge Booster Training Bytes is an online journal that relays information about Cadence Training videos, online courses, and upcoming webinars that are available in the Learning section of the Cadence Learning and Support portal. This blog category brings you direct links to these videos, courses, and other related material on a regular basis.

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On behalf of the Cadence Training team

Hello,

A mybe silly question came to my mind: When routing sense lines, is it better to hav them as close as possible to DUT or afer the decoupling capacitors ?

Force in red, sense in purple.

Best way is 1 or 2 ?

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas to everybody !

Hi, newbie here.

We are using AWR Design Enviroment in our university and so I have to install it (OS: Arch Linux)
I installed it in a Windows 10 VM without problems.

When I try to start it prompts "Failed to connect to license server", I guess thats the first problem.

After that when trying to generate my SUL License it will prompt Internal Error -8 (see Image)

I can't find something on Error -8 :/ and overall the available data to the license topic is quit low :/

If someone has a solution for that I would gladly hear about it :)

London event hears how the UK export credit agency is increasing its focus on trade with African countries. Jason Mitchell reports.

The Gulf region is making extensive reforms to its foreign investment landscape in an effort to attract foreign investors to sectors outside oil and gas, according to a recent report by PwC. 

The situation between the US and China is bad news for South Korea’s investment climate.

The Hisense 50" Class R6 Series 4K UHD Roku Smart TV is currently on sale for $138 at Walmart's early Black Friday sale — get it now and save 43% or $100-off.

NVIDIA and SoftBank Group CEOs to describe advancements in AI ecosystem, including generative AI, both in Japan and globally, at an exclusive event.

The next technology revolution is here, and Japan is poised to be a major part of it. At NVIDIA’s AI Summit Japan on Wednesday, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son shared a sweeping vision for Japan’s role in the AI revolution. Speaking in Tokyo, Huang underscored that AI Read Article

THE Ministry of Commerce yesterday added two United States companies to the Unreliable Entity List over their involvement in arms sales to China’s Taiwan region. In a statement, the ministry said it

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

WASHINGTON — According to the Somaliland National Electoral Commission, more than 1 million registered and eligible voters head to the polls Wednesday to elect their president for the next five years. Three candidates, including incumbent President Muse Bihi Abdi, seek to consolidate the region’s fragile democracy, boost economic growth and gain international recognition that the Somali enclave has struggled to secure for 33 years. Abdi, of the ruling Peace, Unity and Development Party, also known simply as Kulmiye, seeks a second term in Wednesday’s polls. He is running against Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, known as "Irro,” of the Waddani party and Faisal Ali Warabe of the Justice and Development Party, or UCID. Promises In an interview with VOA Somali, each of the three candidates promised to strengthen democracy, boost economic growth and seek international recognition for the breakaway region. Abdi, 76, who was elected head of the region in 2017, has pledged there will be progress on a controversial maritime deal that Ethiopia signed with Somaliland earlier this year. “On our side, we [Somaliland] are free, we are ready to implement the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding], and we are waiting from the Ethiopian side so that we can go ahead with it,” Abdi said. “Ethiopia needs access to sea, and we need recognition, and this MOU is about these needs.” This is the fourth presidential election since the region on the northwestern tip of Somalia broke away from the rest of the country, following the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. The territory declared independence that year but has never achieved international recognition. Despite this, Somaliland has a functioning government and institutions, a political system that has allowed democratic transfers of power between rival parties, its own currency, passport and armed forces. According to Freedom House's 2024 flagship annual report, which assesses the condition of political rights and civil liberties around the world, Somaliland experienced an erosion of political rights in the past several years. The report said, “Journalists and public figures face pressure from authorities. Minority clans are subject to political and economic marginalization, and violence against women remains a serious problem.” Talks between Somaliland, which is seeking full statehood, and Mogadishu, which fiercely opposes the move, have been held on and off between 2012 and 2020 but failed to bear fruit. Irro, of the Waddani party, who also served as speaker of the House of Representatives of Somaliland’s lower chamber of parliament for more than 11 years, said he would resume talks with Somalia. “It was not our choice to talk to Somalia because our goal has always been getting recognition, but the international community urged us to talk. If I am elected, I will resume the talks if the Somaliland interest lies there, and [at] the same time we will review the previous failed talks,” said Irro. Warabe, of the Justice and Development Party, said that if elected, he would seek recognition through the establishment of a national unity government in Somaliland. “The return of Bihi [Abdi], who has been for seven years in power, and his party, which has been in power since 2010, is not [an] option for Somaliland voters,” Warabe said. “If I am elected, I will lead Somaliland to recognition and [a] more prosperous road.” Regional tension Somaliland’s Wednesday vote comes at a time when tensions remain high between Somalia and Ethiopia over the controversial Memorandum of Understanding that Ethiopia signed with Somaliland. The deal would grant Ethiopia a 50-year lease of access to 20 kilometers of the Red Sea coastline in exchange for the potential recognition of Somaliland's independence, which Somalia views as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The deal signed on January 1 in Addis Ababa by Abdi and Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sparked anger in Mogadishu, which considers Somaliland as part of its national territory. The opposition to the deal plunged the two neighboring countries into a deadlocked situation. In April, Somalia expelled Ethiopian Ambassador Muktar Mohamed Ware, alleging "internal interference" by Ethiopia. Somalia also ordered the closure of Ethiopia's consulates in Somaliland and Puntland, although they remained open. Last month, Somalia expelled Mogadishu-based Ethiopian diplomat Ali Mohamed Adan, who was a counselor at Ethiopia's embassy in Mogadishu. In July and August 2024, two rounds of talks between Ethiopia and Somalia, mediated by Turkey, failed to solve the dispute, with Somalia demanding Ethiopia withdraw from the deal and Ethiopia insisting that it does not infringe on Somalia’s sovereignty. On Saturday, Somali Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur repeated the Somali government position against Ethiopian troop involvement in a new African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia starting in January. “I can say that Ethiopia is the only government we know of so far that will not participate in the new AU mission because it has violated our sovereignty and national unity," Nur said Saturday in a government-run television interview. Somaliland’s last presidential elections were held in 2017. The current presidential election was originally set to take place in 2022 but was postponed until 2023 and then again pushed back to November 2024, following a controversial extension of Abdi’s mandate by the parliament’s upper house. The Somaliland National Election Commission, or NEC, said at the time that the delays were due to “time, technical and financial constraints.” Opposition parties vehemently denounced the delays. The president is directly elected for a maximum of two five-year terms and appoints the Cabinet. Sahra Eidle Nur and Harun Maruf contributed to this report.

Edo Queens head coach Moses Aduku is exuding confidence and expects his charges to go all out against FC Masar in the CAF Women’s Champions League Group B clash starting at 18:00 at Larbi Zaouli Stadium, Casablanca on Wednesday (today), PUNCH Sports Extra reports. The Nigerian and West African champions made a flying start to

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A soldier for Yemen's exiled government opened fire on Saudi troops as they exercised in eastern Yemen, killing two of them and wounding another in a rare insider attack during the kingdom's nearly decadelong war there, officials said Saturday. The assault in eastern Hadramawt province comes as a yearslong cease-fire between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthi rebels largely has held despite the militants' ongoing attacks against shipping in the Red Sea corridor. While the Houthis did not claim the attack, at least one Houthi official praised it as being "the beginning and an indication of a harsh future awaiting the invaders." Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes carried out new strikes targeting Houthi positions that lasted into early Sunday morning, the American military said. The strikes come after the militants likely shot down yet-another American reconnaissance drone over the country. The attack on the Saudi troops took place Friday night in Seiyun, a city some 500 kilometers east of Sanaa. As troops worked out at a Saudi-led base there, the soldier opened fire, killing an officer and a noncommissioned officer, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said, citing a military statement. "The Joint Forces Command underscores that this 'Lone Wolf' cowardly attack does not represent the honorable members of the Yemeni Ministry of Defense," the statement added. The dead and the other wounded Saudi solider have been brought back to the kingdom, it added. Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of Yemen's successionist Southern Transitional Council, identified the soldier who carried out the attack as belonging to the First Military Region, which is based out of Seiyun. Police in the area published pictures of the soldier, saying there was a 30-million-Yemeni-rial reward for information leading to the soldier's arrest. That's worth around $15,000 on the black market. Authorities offered no motive for the attack. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the militant group's Yemen branch, long has operated around Hadramawt. However, the group did not immediately claim the attack. A recent United Nations expert report has said that the al-Qaida group and the Houthis have begun to "coordinate operations directly with each other." The Houthis meanwhile did not claim the attack either. However, Houthi official Hamid Rizq praised the attack in a message on the social platform X, claiming it came from "the feeling of oppression" over Saudi troops being stationed in the area. "The heroic operation is the beginning and an indication of a harsh future awaiting the invaders," Rizq wrote. Yemen has been mired in a decadelong war since the Houthis swept into Sanaa from their northern strongholds in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war on behalf of Yemen's exiled government in 2015. The war further internationalized, with Iran backing the Houthis with weapons and support that cemented the conflict into a yearslong stalemate. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. A cease-fire that expired in October 2022 largely has held in the time since, however, even as the Houthis have seized on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel's invasion of Lebanon. On Saturday night, Houthi-run media reported U.S. airstrikes targeting areas around Sanaa. The airstrikes continued into Sunday morning and also included sites in Amran province just outside of the capital, the Houthis said. The rebels offered no immediate damage assessment from the strikes. The U.S. military later told The Associated Press on Sunday it conducted airstrikes "on numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen." It described the sites as housing advanced conventional weapons used to target military and civilian ships in the Red Sea corridor but offered no other immediate details. The U.S. military has targeted radar stations, military bases and drone and missile launch sites since beginning its ongoing airstrike campaign against the Houthis in January. 

Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of people in Lebanon and northern Gaza on Sunday, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have been discussing the way forward for when Trump takes office in January. The Israeli leader said he has spoken with Trump three times since the U.S. presidential election last week and that they “see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects, and on the dangers they reflect.” Netanyahu said he sees “great opportunities facing Israel, in the area of peace and its expansion,” but did not expand on his statement.   Before the election, Trump, according to Israeli news accounts, told Netanyahu that he wanted Israel to resolve its wars against two Iranian-supported groups, Hamas militants in Gaza and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, before his inauguration as president on January 20. Israeli President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to meet with outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday in Washington as the mid-month deadline approaches for Israel to meet a Biden administration ultimatum that it allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza to assist Palestinians or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding. Israeli forces have encircled and largely isolated Jabaliya and the nearby northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun for the past month, allowing in only a trickle of humanitarian aid. Experts from a panel that monitors food security say famine is imminent or may already be happening.   In the Sunday fighting, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 23 people, including seven children, in Aalmat village north of Beirut, far from the areas in the east and south where Hezbollah militants have a major presence. Lebanon's health ministry said another six people were wounded. Watch related report by Arash Arabasadi: There was no Israeli evacuation warning and no immediate Israeli comment on the attack. In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on a home sheltering displaced people in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya killed at least 17 people including nine women, according to Dr. Fadel Naim, director of Al-Ahly Hospital in Gaza City. The Israeli military, without offering evidence, said it had targeted a site where militants were operating. It said the details of the strike are under review. A separate strike hit a house in Gaza City, killing Wael al-Khour, a minister in the Hamas-run government, as well as his wife and three children, according to the Civil Defense first responders who operate under the government. In Syria, the state news agency SANA said an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, killing seven civilians. The Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, suggested Hezbollah was targeted, but Israel did not offer any immediate comment. The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, although about one-third of them are believed to be dead. Israel's counteroffensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas militants. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, has assured that the Federal Government will soon begin payment of the pension backlog. Edun gave this assurance on Tuesday in Abuja during a peaceful rally by the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector, NUPCPS, at the Federal Ministry of […]

Nigerian Govt to commence payment of pension backlog – Finance Minister Edun