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ANKARA, Turkey Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that his country plans to build a wall with Iraq, its southern neighbor, after the country revealed similar plans on the border with Iran earlier in the month, adding that it is to prevent the movements of what he called terrorists.

Turkey has already started constructing a wall with Syria since 2014 with President Erdogan saying on Thursday that they have already completed 650-kilometer long wall on the countrys 911-kilometer border with Syria.

Erdogan has also said that they have plans to erect a wall along its entire Syrian border.

Well do the same along the Iraqi border and in appropriate places along the Iranian border, Erdogan said.

The Syrian Kurdish administration, mainly under the control of the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), runs most of the border with Turkey from the other side.

Turkey considers the PYD, and its armed wing Peoples Protection Units (YPG), an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and therefore a terrorist organization.

The PKK is headquartered in the Qandil mountains located on the border between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey. It has been engaged in a three-decades long insurgency against the Turkish state calling for greater national and cultural rights for countrys Kurdish population.

Turkish media earlier in the month reported about Ankaras plans to construct a 70-kilometer long border wall between Iran and Turkey to counter terrorist activities and limiting PKK movements across the 500-kilometer long borders.

Iran welcomed the Turkish move which it said would curtail illegal border trade worth an estimated $2 billion.

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Erdogan: we will build walls with Iraq and Iran - Rudaw

Accession by Finland has triggered the entry into force of a key international measure for environmental protection that aims to stop the spread of potentially invasive aquatic species in ships ballast water.

The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) will enter into force on 8 September 2017, marking a landmark step towards halting the spread of invasive aquatic species, which can cause havoc for local ecosystems, affect biodiversity and lead to substantial economic loss. Under the Conventions terms, ships will be required to manage their ballast water to remove, render harmless, or avoid the uptake or discharge of aquatic organisms and pathogens within ballast water and sediments

This is a truly significant milestone for the health of our planet, said IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim.

The spread of invasive species has been recognized as one of the greatest threats to the ecological and the economic well-being of the planet. These species are causing enormous damage to biodiversity and the valuable natural riches of the earth upon which we depend. Invasive species also cause direct and indirect health effects and the damage to the environment is often irreversible, he said.

He added, The entry into force of the Ballast Water Management Convention will not only minimize the risk of invasions by alien species via ballast water, it will also provide a global level playing field for international shipping, providing clear and robust standards for the management of ballast water on ships.

Her Excellency Mrs. Pivi Luostarinen Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Finland to IMO, handed over the countrys instrument of acceptance to the Ballast Water Management Convention to IMO Secretary-General Lim on Thursday (8 September 2016).

The accession brings the combined tonnage of contracting States to the treaty to 35.1441%, with 52 contracting Parties. The convention stipulates that it will enter into force 12 months after ratification by a minimum of 30 States, representing 35% of world merchant shipping tonnage.

The BWM Convention was adopted in 2004 by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for developing global standards for ship safety and security and for the protection of the marine environment and the atmosphere from any harmful impacts of shipping.

The ballast water problem Ballast water is routinely taken on by ships for stability and structural integrity. It can contain thousands of aquatic microbes, algae and animals, which are then carried across the worlds oceans and released into ecosystems where they are not native.

Untreated ballast water released at a ships destination could potentially introduce a new invasive aquatic species. Expanded ship trade and traffic volume over the last few decades has increased the likelihood of invasive species being released. Hundreds of invasions have already taken place, sometimes with devastating consequences for the local ecosystem.

The Ballast Water Management Convention will require all ships in international trade to manage their ballast water and sediments to certain standards, according to a ship-specific ballast water management plan. All ships will also have to carry a ballast water record book and an International Ballast Water Management Certificate. The ballast water performance standard will be phased in over a period of time. Most ships will need to install an on-board system to treat ballast water and eliminate unwanted organisms. More than 60 type-approved systems are already available.

IMO has been addressing the problem of invasive species in ships ballast water since the 1980s, when Member States experiencing particular problems brought their concerns to the attention of IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC). Guidelines to address the issue were adopted in 1991 and IMO then worked to develop the Ballast Water Management Convention, which was adopted in 2004.

IMO has worked extensively with the development of guidelines for the uniform implementation of the Convention and to address concerns of various stakeholders, such as with regards to the availability of ballast water management systems and their type approval and testing.

Shipboard ballast water management systems must be approved by national authorities, according to a process developed by IMO. Ballast water management systems have to be tested in a land-based facility and on board ships to prove that they meet the performance standard set out in the treaty. These could, for example, include systems which make use of filters and ultra violet light or electrochlorination.

Ballast water management systems which make use of active substances must undergo a strict approval procedure and be verified by IMO. There is a two-tier process, in order to ensure that the ballast water management system does not pose unreasonable risk to ship safety, human health and the aquatic environment.

GloBallast programme Since 2000, the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-IMO GloBallast Partnerships Project has been assisting developing countries to reduce the risk of aquatic bio-invasions through building the necessary capacity to implement the Convention. More than 70 countries have directly benefitted from the Project, which has received a number of international awards for its work.

GloBallast has recently been developing and running workshops on ballast water sampling and analysis to prepare States for the entry into force of the treaty. Free-to-access online learning tools have been made available, including an e-learning course on the operational aspects of ballast water management. The GloBallast programme also engages with the private sector through the Global Industry Alliance (GIA) and GIA Fund, established with partners from major maritime companies.

GEF CEO and Chairperson, Naoko Ishii, said, The fact that the BWM Convention will enter into force is the result of a long-term productive partnership between GEF, IMO, UNDP and a suite of partners. Its implementation will be instrumental in battling invasive aquatic species, and will lead to healthier marine ecosystems that positively impact both economic opportunity and the livelihoods of millions of people across the globe. Ultimately, the entry into force of the BWM Convention is simply good news for the global environment. (Read GEF/UNDP/IMO/GloBallast press briefing here.)

Examples of invasive species The North American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) has travelled in ships' ballast water from the eastern seaboard of the Americas e.g. to the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas. It depletes zooplankton stocks; altering food web and ecosystem function. The species has contributed significantly to the collapse of Azov Sea, Black Sea and Caspian Sea fisheries in the 1990s and 2000s, with massive economic and social impact.

The Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) has been transported from the Black Sea to western and northern Europe, including Ireland and the Baltic Sea, and the eastern half of North America. Travelling in larval form in ballast water, on release it has rapid reproductive growth with no natural predators in North America. The mussel multiplies and fouls all available hard surfaces in mass numbers. Displacing native aquatic life, this species alters habitat, ecosystem and the food web and causes severe fouling problems on infrastructure and vessels. There have been high economic costs involved in unblocking water intake pipes, sluices and irrigation ditches.

The North Pacific seastar (Asterias amurensis) has been transported in ballast water from the northern Pacific to southern Australia. It reproduces in large numbers, reaching plague proportions rapidly in invaded environments. This invasive species has caused significant economic loss as it feeds on shellfish, including commercially valuable scallop, oyster and clam species.

Other examples are listed here.

Further information on ballast water management can be found here.

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Convention for the Control and Management of Ships ... - IMO

Internet is a widely used for making business grows throughout the world. People are using it in numerous ways for making their products or services familiar to potential clients. The most appropriate way of doing Internet marketing or promotion of goods is opting SEO i.e. Search Engine Optimization. It is a technique through which various SEO experts boost the visibility of companys website and hence, the traffic of website enhances. It not only increases an individuals interest into a particular brand, but also improves the sale of several companies. Consequently, businesses can grab attention of customers.

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For a companys website, content is the king. Quality, information, keyword stuffing, density and many other aspects are important for quality content. People search for relevant information and if appropriate information is missing in a website, the bounce rate of a site augments. Search engine optimization can certainly amplify the ranking of a website. That is the paramount reason why countless organizations and businesses hire SEO companies. There are abundant SEO companies all over the world; only few understand complete SEO processing. If any entity is searching for a reliable and experienced SEO company NewYork city would be a optimal option. Companies of this area have maintained preeminent reputation among their clients. These companies fulfill the needs of those businesses who struggle to improve traffic and ranking of websites. These companies have been consistent since long and believe in client satisfaction. SEO experts of these companies help clients in creating integrated SEO-based digital mar keting strategy. They have immense knowledge and skills to add traffic to a specific website. They make necessary changes in a website which are highly useful in achieving high rankings.

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Choose a reliable SEO company and make your business flourishing - Good Herald

Forbes

How To Create A PR Program From Scratch Forbes Once the spokespeople have been identified, decide what level of media training they need. Keep in touch with your spokespeople on industry developments that they can provide analysis and unique commentary ... Identify who the players are across ...

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How To Create A PR Program From Scratch - Forbes

If you need water and decide that drilling a hole in Hoover Dam is a good idea, youll be rewarded with a thin stream that lasts for a long time. But if you want a lot of water, why would you stop with just one hole?

I use this analogy whenever I speak to e-commerce firms about getting traffic through SEO. If you arent ranking on Google for allyour profitable keywords, youre going to be stuck with a trickle of traffic that represents just a fraction of your full potential.

Wouldnt it be nice if you could direct some of that unrealized traffic back to your website? Today, Imgoing to talk about one way to help do that: by building out alogical and intuitive site architecture.

The few e-commerce companies that are highly successful invest time and expertise into planning their website structure correctly from the beginning.By laying the foundation for your information architecture on the firm ground of expert analysis based on your historic sales, revenue and conversion data, youll ensure that your SEO automatically grows stronger over time and remains immune to tectonic shifts from any future algorithm updates.

The most profitable e-commerce web shops dont have sites that mirror their marketing brochures or organizational structures. Online, customers dont care about that.

They want answers and they want them fast!

So a company selling bed sheets and curtains might have their site structured like this:

Within this structure, there can be sub-divisions for specific types:

Someone looking for a curtain can be quickly directed to the best location, where theyll find relevant information about curtains such as fabric, colors, designs, brands, sizes and more which they can search or filter according to their requirements.

With customization of templates, enough information and content can be included in these category pages to make them complete destinations rather than just product dumps that display a long list of items with descriptions.

This kind of website structure is intuitive to users, helps deliver a delightful customer experience, and also has several natural SEO advantages:

Its important for e-commerce web shops to have information architectures that scale as you grow bigger.

If your site only shows up for the black, 64GB iPhone model, customers who are searching for a white, 32GB version wont come to you. If a buyer searches for LED TVs, and your site ranks only for LCD TVs, youll lose sales.

Hoping that Google will figure out that you also sell these other things wont work. Your information architecture must be designed to make that crystal-clear. And each category and sub-category should expand and develop as you add new products to it.

How you name these categories also matters, especially when labels you assign in your database are automatically pulled into your URL structure. Ive detailed technical solutions to help with this in my previouspiece on e-commerce SEO best practices.

What you can do to help develop an ideal information architecture on your e-commerce website will depend upon your role in the organization.

Collaborate with an SEO consultant for the above. He or she will draw up lists of search terms based on keyword analysis and help you draft unique descriptive text for products listed on the e-commerce store. This will boost your search rankings and attract more traffic.

As you can see, theres a role for everyone in implementing an optimized information architecture. With proper planning, a strong site architecture can ensure high search engine ranking for profitable keywords that can be sustained over the long term and it caneven keep on growing stronger automatically as your site develops and expands.

It all begins with laying the right foundation, and this requires close cooperation between all the teams involved, under the guidance of an SEO consultant who is experienced in e-commerce SEO. Only this will help fix profit leaks that can funnel extra dollars into your coffers year after year.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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Is your information architecture costing your e-commerce web shop millions in lost sales? - Search Engine Land